Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Islam Book

["REFORM AND REVIVAL 251 The sunna and path of the Prophet constitute a proof of the necessity for establishing government. Ayatollah Khomeini as a result of his political activity against God is blasphemy.\u201d After 14 years in exile, Ayatollah he was imprisoned and then exiled, Khomeini appointed a new prime Khomeini returned to Tehran on and died in the UK in 1977. minister, even though the previous February 1, 1979\u2014a day still celebrated incumbent was still in office. Rival each year as a public holiday in Iran. The following year, an attack on supporters battled in the streets, Khomeini in government-backed but the fighting was short-lived; elected by the Iranian people for a newspapers in Iran led to protestors on February 11, the Supreme maximum eight-year term. However, in the shrine city of Qom calling for Military Council ordered all military the theocracy holds ultimate power, the Ayatollah\u2019s return. A number of personnel back to their bases, since presidential candidates have students were killed by security ceding control to Khomeini. Two to be approved by a panel of clerics forces. The demonstrations spread months later, a referendum was held before they can run for election. to other cities and were met with on whether Iran should become an more violence. Factory workers went Islamic Republic: 98 percent of the The Iranian Revolution was on strike in sympathy with the voters were in favor. not necessarily about religion, demonstrators, and the government but Islam was the single most declared martial law, sending tanks The new administration was important force in uniting the out into the streets. On the holiday a hybrid. Its head of state, known people against a shah who was of Ashura, which that year fell on as the Supreme Leader, was a characterized as despotic and December 11, more than a million religious figure, placing the Islamic under the sway of the Western people demonstrated in Tehran. faith at the center of the state, and governments. Despite being in Soldiers began to desert. In January Ayatollah Khomeini filled this role exile from Iran during the period 1979, the Shah relinquished power for the rest of his life. Ostensibly, that led to the toppling of the Shah, and left the country. On February 1, the Supreme Leader\u2019s authority is Khomeini was the leading architect Khomeini flew back to Iran. supplemented by a democratic of the Islamic Republic, and it was structure, with an Iranian president he who provided its composite Revolutionary government serving as the head of government, model of governance. \u25a0 Four days after his return, Khomeini addressed his followers in Tehran and announced the formation of a new government. \u201cThis is not an ordinary government. It is a government based on the Sharia,\u201d he said. \u201cOpposing this government means opposing the Sharia of Islam \u2026 Revolt against God\u2019s government is a revolt against God. Revolt","ITSOLDAAMY","","254 INTRODUCTION General Muhammad The Soviet Union Islamic extremists On 9\/11, al-Qaeda Zia-ul-Haq leads a invades Afghanistan assassinate Egyptian launches coordinated military coup in in support of the ruling president Anwar Sadat terrorist attacks Pakistan. He becomes but unpopular after he makes peace against the US, killing president and adopts communist government. with Israel. Sharia law. almost 3,000 victims. 1977 1979 1981 2001 1979 1980 1990 2003 A popular revolution Led by Saddam Hussein, Iraq invades Kuwait. The United States leads in Iran replaces the Iraq invades the newly After the United Nations an invasion of Iraq declared Islamic state of condemns the invasion, a with the aim of regime of the Shah with toppling the regime an Islamic state led by Iran, beginning the eight- US-led coalition force of Saddam Hussein. Ayatollah Khomeini. year Iran\u2013Iraq War. liberates Kuwait. T he Islam of today is very Islamists. In a little over four years, weeks in early 1991 and resulted much shaped by events large parts of the Muslim world had in the liberation of Kuwait. However, that took place as the been swept by a wave of Islamic the presence of US forces in the 1970s ended and the 1980s began. conservatism and anti-Westernism. Middle East, particularly in Saudi In 1977, a coup in Pakistan saw Arabia, home to the holy cities Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq take charge Seeds of conflict of Mecca and Medina, caused of the country and introduce The Iranian Revolution swept resentment among some Muslims, Nizam-e-Mustafa or the \u201crule of the hardline Shia clergy into power, some of whom had only recently Prophet\u201d\u2014Sharia law. Two years triggering alarm in other countries returned from Afghanistan, where later, the Soviet Union invaded with sizeable Shia populations of they had been successful in driving Afghanistan, and Pakistan allied their own. One such country, out the Russians. It was from with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Sunni-ruled Iraq, invaded Iran, among the ranks of these Islamic United States, among others, in setting off a bloody eight-year war. fighters that militant Islamist funding and arming the Afghan groups such as the Taliban and resistance. Also in 1979, the Iraq had barely made peace al-Qaeda emerged. secular regime of the Shah in with Iran when it launched another Iran was overthrown by a popular invasion, this time of Kuwait in Perceptions of Islam revolution that brought Ayatollah 1990. With international oil supplies Al-Qaeda\u2019s goal was to strike Khomeini to power and transformed in jeopardy, not just in Kuwait but at the West in retaliation for its the country into an Islamic state. also in neighboring Saudi Arabia, perceived oppression of Muslims. In 1981, another reliable ally of the the United States led a rescue On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda West, the Egyptian president coalition. This first Gulf War agents launched terror attacks on Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by culminated in Operation Desert America with massive loss of life. Storm, which lasted about six","ISLAM TODAY 255 Starting in Tunisia, A 17-year-old Pakistani In Indonesia, Islam Rashida Tlaib and anti-government protests activist for female Nusantara is launched as Ilhan Omar become and uprisings, known as education, Malala an alternative interpretation the first Muslim the Arab Spring, spread women to sit in across North Africa and Yousafzai, becomes of an Islam from a non- the US Congress. the youngest winner of Arabic perspective. the Middle East. the Nobel Peace Prize. 2011 2014 2015 2019 2013 2014 2018 2019 The Somali-based Militant group Saudi Arabia lifts Brunei implements terrorist organization Islamic State captures its ban on women new Sharia laws in al-Shabab attacks the large areas of Iraq and which adultery and Westgate shopping mall driving cars and in Nairobi, Kenya, killing Syria and declares issues its first licenses sex between men a new caliphate. are punishable by 67 people. to female drivers. stoning to death. The US responded by attacking elections led the watching world form of a strict, back-to-basics al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and to believe that a new era was approach, known as Wahhabism invading Iraq, ultimately deposing dawning in the region. This has (in its strict Saudi form) or Salafism. its ruler Saddam Hussein. yet to materialize, but the image of young Muslims\u2014of both sexes\u2014 In the Middle East, Saudi The 9\/11 attacks led many in battling for their civil and human Arabia\u2019s hegemony within Islam is the West to view every expression of rights has helped to promote a more challenged by Iran. Since Saddam Islam as a threat. This was a cause nuanced view of the Muslim world. Hussein\u2019s demise, Iranian influence of particular anguish for the millions has expanded into Iraq \u2013 which has of Muslims living as minorities in Opposing forms a Shia majority \u2013 and across Syria the West, who became subjected Even though less than one fifth of into Lebanon. Recent conflict in to mistrust and an increasing tide the global Muslim population lives in Iraq and Syria\u2014including the war of Islamophobia. the Middle East, the region retains against the Islamic State\u2014has an outsized influence on the rest of created millions of Muslim refugees. The West\u2019s perception of the the Islamic world. Indonesia, which Some of these have been absorbed Muslim world underwent another has the world\u2019s largest Muslim by neighbouring countries, but profound change in 2011 with the population, has developed its own many have fled to Europe. As a Arab Spring uprisings against Southeast Asian take on Islam, but result of this forced migration, allied regimes across North Africa and the thanks to huge oil wealth, it is Saudi with high Muslim birth rates, the Middle East. The fact that many of Arabia and the Arab Gulf states that numbers of Muslims in Europe, and the revolutionary movements were have the most prominent say in the worldwide, are predicted to increase led by young people, that women form in which Islam is observed rapidly in the coming decades, quite were as present at the protests around the world. This takes the possibly altering the story of Islam as men, and that the protestors\u2019 once more. \u25a0 demands were for free, democratic","256 IN CONTEXT HRWTIOEMETGUBWOREDELN,OSANHNGADLTLO THEME Rites of passage THE QURAN, 2:156 WHEN AND WHERE Today, worldwide BEFORE 595 The future prophet Muhammad marries Khadija, who is 15 years his senior. He remains monogamous, but after she dies, he marries another 10 times. 8th century Legal scholar al-Shafii decrees that it is desirable for a man to confine himself to a single wife, although it is permissible for him to marry more than one. 2007 Egypt\u2019s al-Azhar University, an Islamic institution that rules on social conduct, conducted a study of ways to inhibit the spread of urfi, or unofficial, marriages, which, it stated, had \u201creached alarming proportions.\u201d A ll Muslims, whether practicing or not, still embrace the rituals of their faith at important moments in their lives, notably birth, marriage, and death. On the birth of a Muslim child it is traditional in some cultures for the Shahada to be whispered into its right ear\u2014\u201cThere is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.\u201d The central message of Islam is the first thing the child ever hears. Tradition also states that the baby\u2019s first taste should be something sweet, so parents may chew a piece of date and rub the juice on the baby\u2019s gums, or alternatively use honey.","ISLAM TODAY 257 See also: The Five Pillars of Islam: Shahada 36\u201341 \u25a0 The Quranic concept of Heaven 92 \u25a0 Sayings and actions of the Prophet 118\u201323 \u25a0 God\u2019s guidance through Sharia 128\u201333 An Indonesian grandfather cuts a baby\u2019s hair as part of the aqiqa ceremony. Many Muslims believe that by performing aqiqa they will keep their children safe from harm. Preparing for life to relatives and neighbors, and rather than a part of Islamic Babies are usually named on the also to the poor. These days there doctrine, circumcision is not first or seventh day after birth, are special aqiqa charities that will obligatory for converts to Islam. based on a tradition recorded in a carry out the sacrifice on behalf of hadith. Names are usually derived the family and then distribute the Female circumcision, or female from those of the prophets, their meat to the poor. genital mutilation (FGM), is not a wives, or the Companions, with part of Islamic religious observance Muhammad being the most Muslim boys are circumcised, and is widely banned as a violation common choice for boys. Some which ideally takes place at the age of human rights. Where it is sources claim that Muhammad is of one week, but can take place any practiced\u2014including in rural the world\u2019s most popular boys\u2019 time before puberty. In Malaysia, Egypt, Sudan, and Muslim and name, and not just in Muslim- for example, the procedure serves non-Muslim communities in East majority countries: the UK\u2019s Office as a rite marking the boy\u2019s passage Africa, as well as some immigrant for National Statistics revealed that into adulthood. Circumcision is communities in the West\u2014it is Muhammad, and its 14 different something that predates Islam, and a cultural tradition, rather than registered spellings, was the most is thought to date back to the time anything authorized by the Quran. popular boys\u2019 name for babies born of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham). in Britain in 2017. There is no mention of circumcision Getting married in the Quran, but it is addressed in Dating between young Muslim There are a number of events the hadith. For example the Sahih men and women in the majority of that take place on or after the al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim Muslim countries is not common, seventh day, including shaving the quote the Prophet as including and premarital sex is an absolute baby\u2019s head. The hair removed is circumcision in a list of things that taboo. Instead, families play a large weighed and the equivalent weight are fitra\u2014a term that describes the role in bringing young couples in silver (or its monetary value) is state of purity all humans are born together. It is commonly accepted given to charity. It is also traditional into\u2014along with trimming the that parents are in the best position to observe aqiqa, which is the mustache and clipping one\u2019s nails. to find a good life partner for their \u276f\u276f sacrifice of a goat or sheep to express thanks to God for the child. In rural areas, the operation Lord, give us joy in For a boy, two animals are sacrificed, might be performed by a barber, our wives and children, for a girl, it is one; the meat is given but it is more commonly done at a and make us examples to clinic or hospital. Being a custom those who fear You. 25:74","258 RITES OF PASSAGE Sura 35 \u201cThe Creator,\u201d verse 11, succinctly outlines the cycle of life: we are born, we reproduce, we die. It also reveals that how long everyone lives or dies is preordained. Birth Marriage Pregnancy Death \u201cGod created you \u201cInto two sexes \u201cNo female conceives or \u201cNo one grows old or has from dust, then He divided you\u2026\u201d gives birth without His his life cut short but in from a little germ\u2026\u201d accordance with what a knowledge\u2026\u201d Book decrees.\u201d children. The parents have to agree Muslim witnesses. Unlike Christian Marital variants the terms of the dowry (in Arabic, weddings, which traditionally take At the time of the Prophet, it was mahr), paid by the groom to the place in a church, the nikah is more common for men to have more than bride, before the marriage. likely to occur in a clerical office one wife, as long as they could than a mosque. There is no support them and honor them Marriage is a civil contract in requirement for an imam or any equally, and the Quran condones Islam, not a religious rite. At the other religious official to be present. this. While most Islamic authorities heart of it is the nikah, the legal Whatever wedding ceremony maintain that it is legal for a man to contract between a man and a happens after the nikah is shaped take up to four wives (but not for a woman that says that they marry by the cultural traditions of the woman to have multiple husbands), of their own free will. This is couple rather than Islam. polygamy is illegal in some Muslim signed in the presence of two countries, including Turkey and Tunisia, and is in decline in many others\u2014in Egypt, for example, the number of polygamous marriages is below 3 percent. Some Muslims also recognize a form of unofficial short-term marriage known as an urfi marriage. The high cost of marriage forces many young couples to wait years before they officially marry\u2014an urfi marriage allows them to be together without being officially registered. Urfi marriages are conducted by a Muslim cleric in the presence of two witnesses. The couple can register An Indian Muslim bride signs a marriage certificate in the presence of religious leaders during the ijaazat (\u201cpermission\u201d) ceremony.","ISLAM TODAY 259 the marriage later and have a full seeking to break the marriage A Shia family tends the grave of a wedding when finances allow. In contract, unless she can prove just relative in one of the world\u2019s biggest the Shia tradition, mutah marriages cause before the qadi. cemeteries, in Najaf in Iraq. Visits are are permitted where a man and traditionally made during the Eid al-Fitr woman marry privately, for a short The end of life celebrations at the end of Ramadan. to medium-term period, and no Islam sees death as a transitional witnesses are required. stage between life in this world deceased\u2019s family wash the and the afterlife. Death is divinely body to remove impurities\u2014men These temporary marriages are willed and when it arrives it should are washed by men, women by highly contentious and are often be readily accepted. The deceased women. They then wrap the kept secret from family members. should be buried as soon as body in a modest white shroud. They are also dangerous for the possible after death, preferably on Mourners say a funeral prayer for women involved because the the same day (cremation is not the deceased at the mosque, after arrangement gives them no legal allowed). Adult members of the which the body is carried to the protections, such as the right to cemetery. It is laid in a grave, alimony or child support. LGBT+ and Islam with the body facing Mecca, while the mourners recite the Shahada, Getting divorced The Quran tells the story of the the same attestation of faith that In Islam a man can divorce his people of Lot\u2014which is also in was whispered into the baby\u2019s wife by pronouncing the talaq, the Bible\u2014who were destroyed ear at birth. Many of those present by which he announces that he by God due to their \u201cobscene\u201d throw three handfuls of earth into repudiates her. However, in Islam behavior, which included the grave while reciting from sura marriage is both a sacramental homosexuality: \u201cWill you 20 in the Quran: \u201cFrom the earth and a contractual institution, and fornicate with the males of We have created you, and to the divorce is presented only as a last humans and eschew the wives earth We will restore you; and option, after a couple has pursued whom God has created for you?\u201d from it We will bring you back all possible remedies to rebuild the (26:165\u201366). In light of this, to life\u201d (20:55). relationship. Prophet Muhammad early Muslim scholars declared is reported to have said, \u201cOf all the a prohibition on homosexuality. Specific funerary rituals differ lawful things, divorce is the most by country, but usually the family hated by God.\u201d Some Muslims today view and relatives give money or food homosexuality as a lifestyle to the poor in the name of the The more common and proper choice and believe that a person deceased in expiation for any sins procedure is that if a couple agree they may have committed. \u25a0 to divorce by mutual consent, they petition a qadi (someone learned who feels homosexual urges in Sharia) to annul the marriage should strive to change or in front of two witnesses. If one abstain. There are some Muslim partner wishes to divorce but the countries in which same-sex other does not, he or she can still intercourse is legal, including petition the qadi and, if there are Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and reasonable grounds, the divorce most of Indonesia, but in the will be granted. A marriage can majority of Muslim countries, also be annulled if the couple have committing homosexual acts is been living apart for at least two against the law. The specific years and one partner has no punishment varies by country, intention of returning to the other. ranging from jail sentences and lashings, to the death penalty When the divorce is initiated in states such as Brunei, Saudi by the husband, the wife has full Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen. rights to keep the dowry that was paid to her. If the wife initiates a divorce, she may forgo the right to keep the dowry since she is the one","260 IHTSHOLEUASMSEESVEONF ED HUSAIN (2018) IN CONTEXT MUSLIM POPULATION (MILLIONS) 219.9 The 10 countries with the largest Muslim 194.4 184 populations together contain more than THEME 144 two-thirds of the world\u2019s total Muslim The demographics population. The source is a 2015 survey of Islam today by the Pew Research Center in the US. WHEN AND WHERE 90 83.8 77.6 75.4 Today, worldwide 37.2 32.2 BEFORE INDONESIA 7th century Conquests take INDIA Islam into Africa and Europe, and to the borders of India. PAKISTAN BANGLADESH 651 The third caliph, Uthman, sends an embassy to China. NIGERIA EGYPT 922 Volga Bulgaria becomes IRAN the first Muslim state in what is now European Russia. TURKEY ALGERIA 12th century The Muslim Kilwa Sultanate, based in East IRAQ Africa, spreads as far south as Mozambique. A ccording to a 2015 survey in India and Pakistan than the by the Pew Research whole of the MENA region. The five 1492 The first Muslim arrives Center, there are roughly countries with the highest Muslim in the Americas as part of 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. populations are Indonesia (219.9m), Christopher Colombus\u2019s crew. The global population in 2019 is India (194.4m), Pakistan (184m), 7.7 billion, which means that almost Bangladesh (144m), and Nigeria AFTER one in four people in the world (90m). The sixth country on the list, 2050 Data published in today is a Muslim. Of those, only Egypt, is the Middle Eastern 2017 predicts there will be 317 million, or less than 18 percent, country with the largest Muslim 2.76 billion Muslims by 2050\u2014 live in the Middle East and North population, with approximately 29.7% of the world\u2019s population. Africa (MENA). More Muslims live 83.8 million.","ISLAM TODAY 261 See also: Spreading Islam though trade 182\u201385 \u25a0 Islam in Europe 210\u201315 \u25a0 Early Muslims in America 224\u201327 \u25a0 The creation of Pakistan 242\u201347 \u25a0 Islam in Africa 278\u201379 \u25a0 Islam in Indonesia 280\u201381 \u25a0 Muslims in the West 282\u201385 The houses of Islam The ultimate vision Indonesia has the world\u2019s largest Students of the Islamic world is to instate in the Muslim Muslim population: about 13 percent divide it into several cultural and of all Muslims in the world live there. geographic spheres. Author Ed world the notion Husain lists seven of these. The of multiculturalism. Spreading Islam first is the Arabic-speaking world Feisal Abdul Rauf The seventh house is the \u201cWest.\u201d of the Middle East, North Africa, Europe has experienced a recent and northern East Africa (Djibouti, American Sufi imam surge of migrants fleeing conflicts and Eritrea). The region that gave in Africa and the Middle East, so birth to Islam is home to less than Chechens, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, numbers are unreliable, but it is one fifth of its followers, but it has Turkmen, Uzbeks, and Chinese thought to be home to about 44 the world\u2019s highest concentration Uighurs. China has about 22 million million Muslims. Russia has the of Muslims. Muslims, mostly concentrated in largest population, with more than Xinjiang, the only Muslim-majority 16 million Muslims. France is home The Persian-speaking countries province, where the population was to 5.7 million Muslims (8.8 percent of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan roughly 53 percent Muslim in 2019. of the country\u2019s population) and form the second region. Iran has Germany 5 million (6.1 percent). the world\u2019s largest Shia population. The sixth region is Southeast European countries with the Asia, which includes Indonesia, highest concentration of Muslims Sub-Saharan Africa forms a Malaysia, Brunei, and minorities are Kosovo (90%), Albania (80%), third region: non-Arabic-speaking in Thailand and the Philippines. Bosnia-Herzegovina (40%), and the Muslim countries including Republic of Macedonia (33%). Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Of the approximately 4.6 million Somalia, account for about 250 Muslims in North America, roughly million Muslims. In countries such 3.45 million live in the US and just as Niger and Somalia, Muslims over 1 million in Canada. Less than make up 99 percent of the 1 percent of the US population is population, though almost one in Muslim, a figure that is projected three Muslims in Sub-Saharan to double by 2050. \u25a0 Africa lives in Nigeria. The fourth region is the Indian subcontinent of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. India has the world\u2019s second-largest Muslim population, despite Muslims making up less than 15 percent of the populace. By 2050, India could have the world\u2019s largest Muslim population, while remaining a Hindu-majority nation. The fifth region is Turkic, and includes Turkey and people with a Turkic heritage: Azerbaijanis, Men pray at a workplace in Lagos, Nigeria, where roughly 50 percent of the country is Muslim (concentrated in the north) and 50 percent is Christian (mostly in the south).","262 SAANUNPOAERNRA-IAOBRRHAIATBSY ONVOER PROPHET MUHAMMAD IN CONTEXT I slam was born in Arabia\u2014 Arab culture and ideology exert an the Prophet Muhammad influence out of proportion to that THEME was an Arab and the Quran figure, and it is an influence that The Arabization of global was revealed to him in Arabic. is on the increase\u2014a modern Islam Muslims all over the world turn to phenomenon known as Arabization. face Mecca, in Arabia, to pray; and WHEN AND WHERE every Muslim hopes to make the This was not always the case. Today, worldwide Hajj to Mecca at some point in their Muslims in Turkey, India, and life. It is common for non-Arab Southeast Asia were once culturally BEFORE Muslims to learn Arabic in order distinct, but since the latter part of 8th century The Shuubiyya to be able to read the Quran and the 20th century, the \u201cGulf Arabic\u201d movement sees a controversial understand the words they are culture of the Arabian Peninsula has promotion of non-Arab, notably saying when they pray. been adopted as a marker of Muslim Persian, culture at the Abbasid identity. The most visible example court in Baghdad. Despite the fact that less than is the traditional Arabian white 20 percent of the world\u2019s Muslim thobe for men and the black abaya 1962 Saudi Arabia founds the population is Arab, Arabic and for women, which have become Muslim World League, in order everyday Muslim attire in many to propagate a Saudi version of If there are some of you who countries. The niqab (face veil) was Islam worldwide. wish to practice Arab culture, rarely seen outside the Arab world and do not wish to follow our until recently, but it is now common 2019 A Sri Lankan news Malay customs, that is up to from Somalia in East Africa to report says that Quranic Brunei in Southeast Asia. madrasas and Arabic colleges you. I also welcome you funded largely by Saudi Arabia to live in Saudi Arabia. Ramzan or Ramadan? \u201chave mushroomed in their Sultan Iskandar of Johor Arabic phrases are increasingly thousands around Sri Lanka\u201d finding their way into national over the past decade. languages in place of local equivalents. For example, a Malay AFTER newspaper reports the growing use c. 2040 Gulf oil (and with it, of the Arabic term hijab (headscarf) perhaps, Gulf influence) is over the Malay tudung, and shukran predicted to peak mid-century. (thank you) over the traditional Malay phrase terima kasih. The Persian Ramzan, which has always","ISLAM TODAY 263 See also: The secularization of Turkey 228\u201331 \u25a0 The birth of Saudi Arabia 232\u201337 \u25a0 The demographics of Islam today 260\u201361 \u25a0 Islam in Indonesia 280\u201381 The Cologne Mosque, inaugurated in 2015, was funded by a branch of the Turkish government\u2019s religious affairs authority, as a way of enhancing Turkey\u2019s status in the Islamic world. been the pronunciation widely used The Arab media strengthens these Muslim cultures as equally valid on the Indian subcontinent for the bonds. The Gulf States successfully expressions of Islamic faith. In month of fasting, has now largely export literature, television, and 2015, the Indonesian Islamic been replaced with the Arabic online content that emphasizes movement Nahdatul Ulama started Ramadan. Similarly, Arabic names an Arabian world view. The prime promoting \u201cIslam Nusantara\u201d as are now favored for children. In example is the Qatari state-funded a form of Islam that takes into Malaysia in 2016, the Sultan of Johor Al Jazeera news broadcaster. account local Indonesian customs. urged Malays not to discard their In the US, black Muslim Americans traditional phrases and culture in Pushback have run social media campaigns favor of copying Arab ways. Countermovements have been to promote their identity, using the pushing back against Arabization, hashtag #BlackoutEid. Turkey has Since the 1970s, when they with a desire to reclaim and been exporting television as a way became rich on oil, the Gulf States promote their own particular of asserting a Turkish version of \u2014Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in Islamic heritage; dubbed versions particular\u2014have been increasing Muslim is not a race of its soap operas\u2014often depicting their influence over global Muslim historical events from Muslim communities. They tap into the Unlike being Jewish or Sikh, history, such as the life of S\u00fcleyman deep-rooted religious connection being Muslim is not considered the Magnificent\u2014have been that the world\u2019s 1.8 billion Muslims a race or ethnicity. Confusion popular throughout the Arab world. hold for the Arabian Peninsula as between what is religion and It is a way of reminding Muslims the cradle of Islam and home to its what is race sometimes leads to that until the 20th century, under holiest sites. This has involved the idea that Arab and Muslim the Ottoman Empire Turkey was recruiting and training imams to are interchangeable, which is the preeminent power in the send out to teach Islam according not the case. Islam is blind to Islamic world. \u25a0 to Gulf and Saudi custom and law, race and embraces all tribes and funding mosques in cities and and cultures. a non-Arab nor has a non-Arab villages across the world. There is any superiority over an Arab; also a drive to centralize global In his Farewell Sermon, in also a white has no superiority Muslim community decision- 632, the Prophet Muhammad over a black nor has a black any making, such as declaring when is reported to have said, \u201cAll superiority over white except Ramadan has started and when mankind is from Adam and Eve, by piety and good action.\u201d The Eid should be celebrated. an Arab has no superiority over Quran states that the best people are those who are pious, irrespective of race. It presents the existence of different tribes and nations as positive for humanity. Islam is taught as embracing all cultures as long as their traditions do not conflict with Islamic religious practice.","264 IIDSNELCMAOOMMCPARARATECIBYNLOAETND BENAZIR BHUTTO (2007) IN CONTEXT M illions of the world\u2019s example, takes governance out of 1.8 billion Muslims the hands of humans and regards THEME live in democracies, or God as the sole giver of laws. More Islam and democracy countries with open elections. The extreme religious scholars believe country with the world\u2019s greatest that even participating in everyday WHEN AND WHERE number of Muslims, Indonesia, politics\u2014joining a political party Today, worldwide is also the world\u2019s third-largest or voting, for example\u2014is haram, democracy by population. The or religiously forbidden. Wahhabi BEFORE country that is projected to have clerics in Saudi Arabia, the Taliban 632 A successor to the Prophet the biggest Muslim population in in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Muhammad as leader of the the world by 2050 is India, which some followers of the Salafist Muslims is chosen by a shura, is the world\u2019s largest democracy. movement adopt this position. or a council of wise men. Mali, Senegal, Tunisia, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Islamists support the vote 1945 In Turkey, a multiparty Malaysia are all Muslim-majority Not all Islamist organizations political system replaces the countries that have democratic oppose democracy. There have autocratic regime established political systems, of varying been occasions in recent history by founder of the modern state, degrees of success. All of these Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk. facts would suggest that there is You have Christian democracy no inherent contradiction between in Europe. Why can\u2019t we have 1947 Following Partition, the Islam and democracy. newly independent nations Muslim democrats in the of both India, with its large The Quran contains a number Muslim world? Muslim minority, and Pakistan, of ideas that might be read as with its Muslim majority, supporting democratic ideals: one Anwar Ibrahim become democracies. is the shura, or communal decision- making; another is ijma, or the Malaysian reformist leader 2011 Pro-democracy uprisings principle of consensus. Sura 42:38, erupt throughout the Arabic- for example, recommends that speaking world, beginning in believers \u201cconduct their affairs Tunisia and spreading to by mutual counsel.\u201d Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Bahrain. However, Muslims who follow a stricter interpretation of the Quran could argue that a strict implementation of Sharia law, for","ISLAM TODAY 265 See also: God\u2019s guidance through Sharia 128\u201333 \u25a0 The rise of political Islam 238\u201341 \u25a0 The demographics of Islam today 260\u201361 \u25a0 Salafism 304 The development of both military removed Mursi from office with leaders who are not prepared political Islam and democracy in a coup in 2013 and restored to give citizens a say in who rules authoritarian rule. them, and who curtail personal now appear to go hand in freedoms to keep it that way. Why hand, albeit not at A national uprising in Muslim- this should be is a matter of debate the same pace. majority Tunisia also resulted in among political scientists. Some Olivier Roy the ousting of a long-standing, point the finger at the West\u2019s long- authoritarian president in 2011, standing willingness to support Professor at the European University paving the way for democratic the region\u2019s despots and dictators, Institute in Florence elections. The experiment was particularly during the Cold War, more successful than in Egypt. when both the United States and when democracy has appeared as The formerly banned Islamic party the Soviet Union backed politically the most realistic path to political Ennahdha, only legalized in 2011, repressive regimes in order to legitimacy for Islamist parties. In became the party with the most secure regional allegiances. Today, Algeria, for example, the popular seats in the Tunisian Constituent the West continues to support Islamic Salvation Front was poised Assembly. Since then, Tunisians leaders with poor democratic to defeat the ruling National have participated in several more credentials in order to safeguard Liberation Front in democratic peaceful elections and have crucial supplies of oil and gas from elections held in 1991. To prevent approved a new constitution that the Middle East. this from happening, those in power is one of the most progressive in cancelled the elections. Instead, the Arab world. The unpredictability of open the military took control, and more elections, with the risk that they than 100,000 people were killed in Who is against the vote? may, for example, put Islamist a decade-long civil war. To date, Tunisia is the Arabic- parties in power, means that speaking world\u2019s sole successful democracy in the Middle East has More recently, after the 2011 experiment in democracy. The rest frequently not been seen as in the Arab Spring uprisings brought of the region is typically associated best interests of Western powers. \u25a0 down the unpopular government of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, elections the following year saw the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Muhammad Mursi voted in as the country\u2019s president. Once in power, the Brotherhood did not share the democratic culture of the protestors who had put them there; the Tunisians cast their votes at a polling station during parliamentary elections in 2019. Tunisia has built a political system that includes Islamists and their former adversaries.","266 IN CONTEXT IDSATINHSTOYAOTUGHLGRIDONEDEGYOARUBEOFUERT THEME The modern Sharia state THE QURAN, 4:59 WHEN AND WHERE Today, Saudi Arabia BEFORE 8th century Scholars eager to standardize Islamic jurisprudence emerge in many Muslim communities, and independently codify Sharia, or Islamic law. 19th century In the face of European colonialism, Muslims increasingly associate Sharia with self-determination. 1928 The Muslim Brotherhood decrees that only by restoring Islamic law to its central place in the lives of Egyptians can Egypt expect national renewal. 1932 Tribal leader Ibn Saud takes control of the Arabian Peninsula and allows religious scholars to enforce Islamic law. S ince the mid-20th century, some Muslim countries have sought to revive the pre-modern Sharia state\u2014in other words, implement an entirely Islamic legal system, and corresponding code of behavior, derived from the Quran and sunna. Those who promote this path see it as living a life directed not by the rulings of man, but by the eternal, concrete rulings of God. Adherents of Sharia believe they are following the word of God when he revealed, \u201cShould you disagree about anything refer it to God and the Messenger\u201d (4:59). How Sharia should be applied in today\u2019s world is a subject of dispute between \u201cconservative\u201d","ISLAM TODAY 267 See also: God\u2019s guidance through Sharia 128\u201333 \u25a0 Wahhabism, or an Islamic reformation 216\u201317 \u25a0 The birth of Saudi Arabia 232\u201337 \u25a0 The creation of Pakistan 242\u201347 \u25a0 The new extremists 272\u201377 \u25a0 Salafism 304 God\u2019s guidance is given in the Quran Sharia provides guidance in religious and hadith, from which comes Sharia, worship (ibadat) and on how to live an or Islamic law. ethical life (muamalat). Through fiqh, Sharia is adapted Sharia is interpreted and applied by to different societies. jurists, a process known as fiqh. A minority of societies have chosen to For most Muslims, Sharia is a system impose a strict version of Sharia. that helps legislate on, among other things, family disputes. and \u201cmoderate\u201d Muslims. Full retain Sharia only with regard The most prominent example of a implementation extends into all to family law. Just a handful of Sharia state is Saudi Arabia. The areas of public life. Some aspects nations employ full Sharia law\u2014 clerics have a position in Saudi are widely accepted, such as halal Afghanistan, Brunei, Qatar, and Arabia that is unique among foods and Islamic banking (non- Saudi Arabia. Indonesia, Nigeria, Islamic countries. In addition to interest banking). Other aspects and Sudan apply Sharia in certain the Islamic affairs ministry, clerics are more contentious: hudud regions. Iran\u2019s legal code is based have traditionally controlled the (\u201cboundaries\u201d), for example, which on Sharia integrated with civil law. justice and education ministries. \u276f\u276f are the punishments specified in the Quran and hadith, meted out Tomorrow, Thursday, May 1, Hassanal Bolkiah became sultan of for sins ranging from adultery 2014, will see the enforcement the small, oil-rich, Muslim-majority and homosexuality to robbery island of Brunei in 1967. In 2019, he and murder. Under a strict Sharia of Sharia law. decreed Sharia law for his country. regime, Muslims are obliged to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah modify their everyday behavior, including how they dress and with of Brunei whom they spend their time. Sharia states The vast majority of the roughly 50 Muslim-majority countries in the world have replaced Sharia law with criminal and civil law systems based on European models. They","268 THE MODERN SHARIA STATE They also control a religious Avoid condemning the Supporters of Sharia argue that police force, formally known as the Muslim to hudud whenever courts require incontrovertible Committee for the Promotion of you can, and when you can proof before any punishment can Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, find a way out (of hudud) for be carried out. For example, in the and commonly referred to as the case of adultery, the Quran says mutaween. Saudi judges follow the Muslim, then do so. that there must be four reliable the notably strict Hanbali school Prophet Muhammad witnesses to the act. Anyone who of Islamic law, supplemented by accuses someone of adultery regulations issued by royal decree Serious criminal offenses that are without those witnesses is liable that cover more modern issues, covered by Sharia include not only to be punished themselves with such as intellectual property rights. internationally recognized crimes 80 lashes for slander. However, such as murder, rape, theft, treason, critics maintain that these Criminal law and drug smuggling, but also strictures are not always met. Although Sharia covers a vast apostasy (renouncing religious range of human behavior, it is beliefs), adultery, blasphemy, and Women in Sharia the area of criminal law (a small witchcraft. The Saudi version of The status of women in Sharia component) that sparks the most Sharia theoretically allows the is another area of intense debate. controversy. The Quran can be death penalty for all of these Segregation of the sexes, which highly specific on crime and crimes. Execution is usually carried clerics justify under the Sharia punishment: \u201cAs for the man or out in public by beheading with a notion of dar al-fasad (\u201cshielding woman who is guilty of theft, cut sword. Homosexual acts or acts from corruption\u201d), has traditionally off their hands to punish them\u201d promoting homosexuality are meant bans on the mixing of (5:37). And, \u201cThe adulteress and punishable by lashings, prison, men and women. This has had adulterer you shall give each a or even death. the unfortunate effect of keeping hundred lashes\u201d (24:2). In other many women out of employment. places it is more vague: \u201cIf two men Women\u2019s alleged \u201clack of capacity\u201d among you commit a lewd act, (adam al-kifaah) has required the punish them both\u201d (4:16) and \u201cHe presence of a male guardian (a that kills a believer by design shall father, brother, husband, or other burn in Hell forever\u201d (4:93). In such family member), whose permission cases, in which the Quran does not must be granted for travel, medical stipulate a punishment, judges look procedures, or to open a bank to the hadith for guidance. account. Women\u2019s dress is Sharia in non-Muslim countries Sharia tribunals exist in non- although this would not mean Until 2018, Saudi women were banned Muslim countries to serve the they were married in the eyes from driving\u2014since a woman was not needs of Muslim communities. of the state. allowed to travel without a man, it was Often attached to a mosque, argued, they did not need to drive. they are not courts of law, and Some in the West have their rulings do not have legal sought to make Sharia a political force and cannot overrule issue. In the United States, for regular courts. Such bodies are example, a number of US states typically consulted on family have banned Sharia tribunals. issues; for example, a couple Yet virtually every religious seeking divorce might go to a group in the US, including the Sharia tribunal for help reaching Jewish community, uses its agreements about children and own arbitration committees in finances. A couple might get family disputes. In this respect married at a Sharia tribunal, Sharia tribunals are nothing out of the ordinary.","ISLAM TODAY 269 Sharia police stop passing motorists to check on Sharia-compliant dress in Aceh, the sole Indonesian province that observes Sharia law. governed by a strict interpretation between the ideologies of the In 2014, the Sultan of Brunei of Islamic law that requires extreme Taliban and the Saudia Arabian introduced a new legal code that modesty, usually only satisfied by clerics, but both believe that the extended the scope of Sharia courts a long cloak, or abaya, and a head Sharia state has no need for any from civil laws to criminal law. In scarf. The face does not necessarily political parties or forms of 2019, he extended this to include need to be covered with a niqab legislative elections. hudud punishments. The decision (face veil)\u2014some scholars say it triggered an outcry from countries does, but most see it as a cultural Elsewhere, Sharia has often and rights groups around the world. rather than religious practice. been introduced as a means for modern rulers to burnish their A wider sense of Sharia The situation is changing, albeit Islamic credentials for political While non-Muslims are prone to slowly. In 2017, Saudi Arabia\u2019s King reasons. Sharia was written into associating Sharia only with the Salman decreed that women no the 1968 and 1973 constitutions of severe hudud punishments, for longer need permission from their Sudan, and remains the country\u2019s many Muslims this represents only male guardian for some activities, guiding principle. Critics claim a small part of a broader system of including attending college, taking it has been used as a tool to justice, one that is intimately linked a job, and undergoing surgery. Saudi persecute Christian women, who to their Islamic identity. Almost all Arabian women may now drive face being whipped in public for Muslim countries employ Sharia to and they can have a passport and wearing \u201cimmoral\u201d dress, such as some extent, usually relating to travel abroad without a guardian\u2019s a pair of trousers. family laws concerning marriage, consent. However, Saudi women divorce, and succession. By far are still legally classified as minors In 1979, as part of his the majority of modern Muslim for their entire lives. Islamization of Pakistan, military countries see Sharia as a system ruler Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq that can and does coexist within Sharia around the world introduced the Hudood Ordinances. other kinds of legal systems, and The other modern state that has These regulations added new extreme implementations of Sharia come close to the Saudi model of criminal offenses to the penal code, are as much anathema to the Sharia is Afghanistan under the including adultery and fornication majority of Muslims as they are Taliban. A group of Sunni Muslim (sex outside marriage), with new to non-Muslims.\u25a0 Pashtuns established an Islamic punishments, including whipping, state there from 1996 to 2001, with amputation, and stoning to death. cleric-judges and a morality police that patrolled the streets to enforce Islamic rules on behavior. The Taliban went much further than Saudi Arabia in forbidding education and employment for woemn, and by carrying out the hudud punishment of stoning for adultery\u2014something from which even Saudi Arabia has refrained. Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries in the world to extend diplomatic recognition to the Taliban, along with Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. There are major points of difference","270 MTHOARNERPEOLLIIGTIIOCUASL THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER (2015) IN CONTEXT S hia account for roughly state religion during the reign of 15 percent of all Muslims the Safavids (1501\u20131722), and where THEME worldwide. However, they 87 percent of the population Sunni and Shia in the have a greater presence in the identifies as Shia. Iraq, too, has a modern Middle East Middle East than elsewhere. sizeable Shia majority, as does the Recent estimates are that of all small island kingdom of Bahrain. WHEN AND WHERE Muslims in the Middle East, 191 Other notable Shia populations are Today, the Middle East million are Sunni and 121 million in Lebanon, Yemen, and Saudi are Shia, which means Shias make Arabia, and away from the Middle BEFORE up just over 38 percent. East, in India and Pakistan. 1501\u20131722 Rule by Iran\u2019s Safavid dynasty ends the The greatest concentration Although the Shia Safavids mutual tolerance between of Shia Muslims today is in Iran, spent two centuries skirmishing Sunni and Shia as the Shia where Shiism became the official with the Sunni Ottoman Empire Safavids wage war with their Sunni Ottoman neighbors. Eight countries in the Middle East have significant Shia populations. 1935\u201336 Iraqi Shia stage 87% uprisings against the minority 80% Sunni Muslims Shia Muslims Sunni government. PERCENTAGE OF POPULATON (%) In some countries the 73% 1979 The Iranian Revolution 73% remainder of the population is replaces the Shah (King) with a Shia Islamic Republic. comprised of non-Muslims 2005 Following the toppling of 63% Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqi Shia celebrate the end of Sunni 56% 52% 47% dominance in the country. 44% 2019 Iranian-backed militias 32% intervene in Iraq to suppress mass protests against state 20% 25% 24% 21% corruption and unemployment. 11% 15% TURKEY IRAN IRAQ SYRIA YEMEN SAUDI LEBANON BAHRAIN ARABIA","ISLAM TODAY 271 See also: The emergence of Shia Islam 108\u201315 \u25a0 The Safavid Empire 192\u201393 \u25a0 The birth of Saudi Arabia 232\u201337 \u25a0 The Iranian Revolution 248\u201351 along their borders, Sunnis and ousted the country\u2019s internationally A Shia sheikh leads Friday prayer Shiites have peaceably coexisted recognized government in 2015, and in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where the for most of their history. the regime in Syria, where the Assad Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty rules over a family\u2019s repression of Syria\u2019s majority Shia majority population. The specter of sectarianism Sunni population in favor of its own Iran\u2019s Islamic revolution of 1979 Shia Alawite clan sparked protests Muslims, their national identity changed everything\u2014Shias had in 2011. The ensuing civil war has matters more than which tradition overthrown the monarchy, and Shia became a flashpoint for regional of Islam they follow. Islam was now regarded as a more rivalries and global superpowers. militant force. Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi Shias, for example, made Sunni ruler of predominantly Shia Nationalism up the bulk of the Iraqi army that Iraq, was so alarmed by the threat of Despite appearances, Islamic fought Iran during the Iran\u2013Iraq this revolution influencing his own sectarianism is not the sole or even War. When Iraq\u2019s Saddam Hussein population that he invaded Iran in the main cause of divisions in the invaded Kuwait in 1990, one Sunni 1980. In what was portrayed as an Middle East. For the majority of country was invading another; Arab war against \u201cPersians,\u201d Iraq numerous Sunni Arab countries was bankrolled by the Sunni Gulf then signed up to the coalition to States. The Iran\u2013Iraq War was fought liberate Kuwait. The Houthis in to an inconclusive standstill in 1988, Yemen are Zaydi Shia but they but when American-led coalition deposed and later assassinated forces overthrew Saddam in 2003, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who the subsequent parliamentary was also a Zaydi. elections brought in a majority Shia government. The wars of today\u2019s Middle East have their roots in nationalism as Iranian influence has since well as theology. Many of these extended to backing the Lebanese conflicts are proxy wars between Shia militia movement Hezbollah, Iran and Saudi Arabia, two major which is now the strongest party powers in the region pursuing in Lebanon. Iran also backs the strategic rivalries for control of the Houthis, Shia militants in Yemen who Muslim world, particularly in places where governance has collapsed. \u25a0 Let people stop Alawites The Alawites are mainly found boasting about in Syria, where they make up their ancestors. One The Alawites are a group within between 10 and 15 percent is only a pious believer Shiism, reputed to have been of the population. The Assad or a miserable sinner. founded in the 9th century by family, which assumed power Prophet Muhammad Ibn Nusayr\u2014they were formerly in 1971, is of Alawite heritage. known as Nusayris. Like all Presidents Hafez al-Assad and Shiites, they revere Ali, the First his son Bashar al-Assad Imam, but they have also added strengthened loyalty to their elements of other faiths into regime by appointing many their own, including Christianity, Alawites to senior positions in and have a Holy Trinity of the the government and security Prophet Muhammad, Ali, and services. Historically, some Salman al-Farsi, a Companion of Sunni clerics have denounced the Prophet. They are relatively Alawites as heretics, making liberal\u2014they drink alcohol and the Alawites fearful of ever women do not cover their hair. ceding power to the Sunnis.","NO NEGOTIATIONS, NNOOCODNIFAERLEONCGESU, EANSD ABDULLAH AZZAM (1980s)","","274 THE NEW EXTREMISTS IN CONTEXT I n the late 19th to mid-20th Jihad must not be abandoned centuries, when Islamic until Allah alone is THEME thinkers such as Jamal al-Din The new extremists al-Afghani and Sayyid Qutb sought worshipped. Jihad is the to right the wrongs that they way of everlasting glory. WHEN AND WHERE believed Muslims faced due to Today, worldwide Western imperialism, they sought Abdullah Azzam to apply Islam to social and political BEFORE life in order to create a utopian all other non-Islamist Muslims, Late 8th century Early Islamic society. In the late 20th whom they consider to be apostates. Islamic jurists discuss jihad as century, the idea of reconciling Islamic extremist groups see a collective defensive struggle Islam and Western-style modernism themselves as soldiers in a struggle against injustice by infidels turned into rejection, as the new for God\u2019s sovereignty on Earth. and apostates. Islamic extremists scorned the West and everything it stood for. These groups follow the 1898 In Egypt, Islamic reformer This uncompromising approach was teachings of Abdullah Azzam, Rashid Rida launches al-Manar, summed up in a phrase employed who preached that all Muslims, a journal in which he chastises by Palestinian Islamic scholar regardless of nationality, are Muslim societies for facilitating Abdullah Azzam (1941\u201389): \u201cJihad obliged to fight against any enemy colonialism, and calls for a and the rifle alone: no negotiations, who invades a Muslim land. By return to the \u201ctrue Islam,\u201d no conferences, and no dialogues.\u201d 1980, the land Azzam specifically purged of Western influences. had in mind was Afghanistan. The 21st century has seen 1964 Egyptian Islamic a high incidence of what some Generation Afghanistan reformer Sayyid Qutb Western commentators refer to as In December 1979, the Soviet Union publishes his landmark book \u201cjihadism\u201d (war against unbelievers), had invaded Afghanistan in order to Signs on the Road, which urges perpetrated by Islamist groups. The support the country\u2019s communist Muslims to create an Islamic term \u201cIslamist\u201d is debated, but is (and therefore atheist, un-Islamic) society based solely on the generally taken to mean a supporter government. Volunteers from all over precepts of the Quran. of militancy in the name of a strict the Muslim world heeded Azzam\u2019s interpretation of Islam, pitting call and streamed into Afghanistan Muslims against non-Muslims\u2014 to take up arms against the Soviets. or sometimes, in the case of Known as mujahideen, these Afghan extremists known as takfiri, against and Muslim resistance fighters were supported by an unlikely grouping that included Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. For nine years the Soviet army battled Muslim mujahidin forces in Afghanistan before conceding defeat in February 1989 and abandoning the country.","ISLAM TODAY 275 See also: The quest to make God\u2019s word supreme 134\u201335 \u25a0 The crusades through Muslim eyes 180\u201381 \u25a0 The rise of Islamic Modernism 222\u201323 \u25a0 The birth of Saudi Arabia 232\u201337 \u25a0 The rise of political Islam 238\u201341 \u25a0 Islam in Africa 278\u201379 Among the mujahideen was Ayman was released and moved to Saudi In August 1990, US troops arrived in al-Zawahiri, a doctor from Cairo. Arabia, where he became a professor Saudi Arabia at the request of its ruler, An ardent follower of radical Islamic of Islamic studies and promoted his King Fahd, ahead of Operation \u201cDesert thinker Sayyid Qutb, al-Zawahiri brother\u2019s work. Bin Laden, inspired Storm,\u201d which expelled Iraqi forces was a member of an Egyptian by what he learned, headed to from Kuwait by February 1991. group called al-Jihad. Their Pakistan in 1981, where he found spiritual leader was the blind another mentor in Abdullah Azzam. In 1990, the invasion of Kuwait sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would later be given a life sentence The road to 9\/11 put Saudi Arabia\u2019s oil fields at risk. for conspiring to bomb New York Al-Zawahiri viewed Afghanistan Bin Laden offered the use of the City\u2019s World Trade Center in 1993. as a training ground for revolution mujahideen to defend the oil fields, in his own country against what but the kingdom\u2019s rulers opted to In 1981, al-Jihad killed Egypt\u2019s was termed the \u201cnear enemy\u201d\u2014in join an American-led coalition and President Anwar Sadat, who had this case, the Egyptian government. allow it to deploy troops on Saudi angered the Islamists by signing a Bin Laden\u2019s focus was the \u201cfar territory. Bin Laden denounced the peace deal with Israel. Following his enemy\u201d\u2014which meant the West. coalition and what he saw as the assassination, many Islamists were profaning of sacred soil. Banished rounded up and jailed, including When the Soviets withdrew from from Saudi Arabia, he fled first to al-Zawahiri. He was released in 1986 Afghanistan in 1989, al-Zawahiri Sudan in 1991, then to Afghanistan and moved to Pakistan to treat continued to lead al-Jihad in a in 1996. wounded mujahideen. There he met campaign of bombings and attacks and befriended a rich young Saudi on Egyptian political figures. In 1996, Bin Laden issued a Arabian named Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, Bin Laden, Abdullah \u201cDeclaration of War against the Azzam, and others formed a new Americans Occupying the Land of As a student at King Abdulaziz group, which they called al-Qaeda the Two Holy Places.\u201d It called on all University in Jeddah, Bin Laden (\u201cthe Base\u201d). Its objective was to Muslims to liberate Saudi Arabia had attended lectures given by purge Islam of Western influence, from the Americans, who had Muhammad Qutb, younger brother destroy Israel, and establish a new retained a presence there after of Sayyid. Both brothers had spent caliphate across the Muslim world. driving the Iraqis out of Kuwait. \u276f\u276f time in prison in Egypt, but while Sayyid was hanged, Muhammad Al-Qaeda can best be understood as an engine that runs on the despair of the Muslim world. Lawrence Wright Author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9\/11","276 THE NEW EXTREMISTS This fatwa was followed by another in which he gave his justifications al-Shabab (\u201cThe Youth\u201d), which statement in 1998\u2014this time issued for al-Qaeda\u2019s campaign. These killed almost 700 people with under the name of the World Islamic included America\u2019s support of the its truck bombs in Mogadishu, Front, a new umbrella organization State of Israel since its creation in Somalia, in 2011 and 2017, and that brought together Bin Laden\u2019s 1948, allowing Israel\u2019s occupation carried out further attacks in al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri\u2019s al-Jihad, of Palestine and incursions into Nairobi, Kenya, in 2013 and 2019. and three other groups. It ruled that Lebanon; its actions in Somalia; its \u201cto kill the Americans and their inaction over Muslim oppression in The Taliban allies\u2014civilians and military\u2014[is] Chechnya and Kashmir; its \u201clooting\u201d After the Soviets withdrew from an individual duty for every Muslim of Arab oil; and its sanctions in Iraq. Afghanistan in 1989, defeated by who can do it.\u201d the mujahideen\u2014a victory celebrated The US response to 9\/11 was to by both Islamists and the West\u2014the In August that year, suicide declare a \u201cWar on Terror\u201d and go victors turned on each other. Civil bombings by al-Qaeda destroyed after al-Qaeda in its home territory war broke out, and factions were US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, of Afghanistan. Although nearly 80 backed by external forces, including and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, percent of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan Iran and Saudi Arabia. One group killing 224. In 2000, al-Qaeda were then eliminated, the group\u2019s that emerged in 1994 was made up militants bombed the US naval wider network of affiliated cells of Pashtun (an ethnic group split ship USS Cole in a suicide attack continued to plan and execute across Pakistan and Afghanistan) off the coast of Yemen, killing 17 US attacks. On July 7, 2005, four British and Pakistani Deobandi students. servicemen. On September 11, 2001, suicide bombers killed 56 people on Known as the Taliban (from the members of al-Qaeda flew two London\u2019s Underground train network Arabic talib, or \u201cstudent\u201d), it aimed commercial airliners into the twin and on a London bus, and hundreds to establish a pure Islamic society. towers of the World Trade Center in more civilians were killed in further New York City, and a third into the attacks in Bali, Istanbul, Algiers, From 1996 until its overthrow in Pentagon in Washington DC, while Madrid, Paris, and elsewhere. 2001, the Taliban ruled roughly a fourth plane that was intended to three-quarters of the country, and target either the White House or In 2011, US president Barack enforced a brutal interpretation the Capitol was crashed in a field in Obama announced that Bin Laden of Sharia\u2014from the rejection of Pennsylvania. In total, al-Qaeda\u2019s had been killed in a covert operation humanitarian aid to widespread 9\/11 attacks killed 2,996 people, in Abbottabad in Pakistan. While massacres and the destruction including 2,507 civilians, 343 the influence of al-Qaeda has since of the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of firefighters, 72 law enforcement waned, some of its affiliates remain Bamiyan statues in 2001. Only officers, and 55 military personnel. active\u2014notably the Somali-based Combatting al-Qaeda Almost all Muslim leaders\u2014political and religious\u2014condemned the 9\/11 attacks, including the leaders of Egypt, Iran, Libya, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority. In 2002, as Muslims and non- Muslims around the world struggled to understand what could have inspired such a shocking attack, Bin Laden posted a \u201cLetter to America\u201d So-called Islamic State fighters display the group\u2019s black banner, which is emblazoned with the second phrase of the Shahada: \u201cMuhammad is the messenger of God.\u201d","There will come a people from sought only to control a single ISLAM TODAY 277 the east, young men with country, Islamic State (IS), as it shaved heads and foolish was now called, laid claim to the Resisting the Taliban ideas, who recite the Quran leadership of the whole of the Muslim world. \u201cSoon,\u201d al-Baghdadi On October 9, 2012, two men without it penetrating beyond declared, \u201cby God\u2019s permission, a stopped a school bus in the their throats. Wherever you day will come when the Muslim northern Swat district of find them, fight them. will walk everywhere as master.\u201d Pakistan, and asked, \u201cWho is Prophet Muhammad Malala?\u201d When she identified A US-led coalition began herself, they shot 15-year-old Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the airstrikes against the Islamic State Malala Yousafzai in the head. United Arab Emirates formally in Iraq in 2014, while combined Iraqi, recognized the Taliban government. Kurdish, and Syrian forces fought the The daughter of a teacher, In 2001, in the aftermath of 9\/11, Islamic State on the ground. Cells Malala had been raised to be the Taliban rejected a US of Islamic State operatives bombed politically aware. Inspired by ultimatum to turn over Bin Laden a Russian plane in Egypt in 2015, figures such as reformist and expel the al-Qaeda forces they and carried out a series of deadly Muhammad Ali Jinnah and sheltered. In response, the US and attacks in Paris, but by 2018, the former prime minister Benazir its allies invaded Afghanistan and campaign against the Islamic State Bhutto, from the age of 12 she deposed the Taliban government. could focus on its few remaining had spoken out in public and strongholds in eastern Syria. online about basic rights of Since then, however, the group education for girls and how has steadily reasserted its presence In December of that year, US these rights were threatened in Afghanistan; by 2019, the Taliban president Donald Trump declared by the Taliban. Their attempt controlled 15 percent of the country that ISIS was defeated. In late 2019, on her life was in retaliation and was active in 70 percent. the US announced the death of for her activism. al-Baghdadi, killed in a raid by Islamic State US special forces. Malala was left in a critical The so-called Islamic State\u2014also condition but was transferred known as ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq Misguided beliefs to a hospital in the UK, where and Syria), ISIL (Islamic State of According to a report by the she recovered. She became an Iraq and the Levant), or Daesh (an Global Extremist Monitor, Islamist even more prominent activist Arabic acronym)\u2014grew out of the extremism was responsible for the for the right to education for remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It took deaths of 84,000 people (including girls, and in 2014 she was the advantage of instability in Iraq and 22,000 civilians) across 66 countries corecipient of the Nobel Peace in Syria (where civil war had broken in 2017 alone. The majority of Prize, becoming the youngest- out in 2011) to seize territory, extremism\u2019s victims are Muslims, ever Nobel laureate. In 2017, capturing the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Muslim activists such as she began studying at the and Tikrit in 2014. Malala Yousafzai (see right) protest University of Oxford, and she against its injustices. continues to campaign for the That same year, ISIS leader 130 million girls around the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced Abdullah Azzam\u2019s \u201cJihad and world who are not in school. the formation of a caliphate. Where the rifle alone\u201d is a message that al-Jihad and the Taliban had still finds too many willing recruits. At its height, the Islamic State controlled a vast area of territory from western Iraq to central Syria, containing an estimated 8 to 12 million people. However, although it called itself a caliphate, it never controlled the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, and has only succeeded in unifying Arab and other Muslim countries against it. \u25a0","278 PLIEVOEPILSELRAEMAHLLEYRE YOUSSOU N\u2019DOUR, SENEGALESE SINGER (2004) IN CONTEXT I t has been estimated that Countries with a 48 percent of the population Muslim majority THEME of Africa is Muslim, while population Islam in Africa 50 percent is Christian. In addition to the Arabic-speaking countries Afri Aksum WHEN AND WHERE of North Africa, Islam has a large Today, Africa presence in the Horn of Africa, the ca Sahel region south of the Sahara, and BEFORE much of West Africa. With about c. 614 Prophet Muhammad 550 million Muslims across the advises a group of followers continent, Africa is home to almost facing persecution by the one third of the world\u2019s Muslims. Meccans to seek refuge across the Red Sea in Aksum. An African religion Countries with a Islam has been present for so long Christian majority 14th century Musa I is in much of the continent that many emperor of the West African Africans consider it an African population Mali Empire. He is thought to religion. Islamic tradition says that be the richest man in history, the first Companions of Muhammad From its beginnings in Aksum, thanks to vast reserves of to flee persecution in Mecca settled Islam has become Africa\u2019s dominant precious salt and gold. in the Christian kingdom of Aksum, religion in the north, while the south present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. is predominantly Christian. 2013 Al-Qaeda insurgents They are said to have returned to fleeing Timbuktu in Mali set Arabia when Muhammad founded the figure rises to roughly 50 percent, fire to a library containing a Muslim community in Medina, with more than 100 million Muslims. thousands of priceless historic but excavations at a 7th-century In Sierra Leone, Muslims account Islamic manuscripts. cemetery in northern Ethiopia reveal for 77 percent of the population, traces of a Muslim community that while in Guinea it is 85 percent, 2018 Italian police arrest a survived the exiles\u2019 departure. the Gambia 90 percent, Senegal Somali planning to plant a 94 percent, Mali 95 percent, and bomb in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica in Muslims make up approximately Niger 98 percent. Rome on Christmas Day. 34 percent of the population in Ethiopia, which is otherwise largely Despite the dominance of Islam Christian, but in Nigeria, the in these countries across northern continent\u2019s most populous nation, Africa, many Africans who consider themselves Muslims (or, for that","ISLAM TODAY 279 See also: Hijra, the flight from Mecca 28\u201331 \u25a0 Sufism and the mystic tradition 140\u201345 \u25a0 Spreadng Islam through trade 182\u201385 \u25a0 The demographics of Islam today 260\u201361 \u25a0 The new extremists 272\u201377 Senegalese Sufi Muslims in front of the Great Mosque of the Mourides in Dakar, before its 2019 inauguration. It is the largest mosque in West Africa. matter, Christians) also continue to In recent decades, poor governance all Western, non-Islamic learning; believe in witchcraft, traditional and state corruption have created the name Boko Haram means religious healers, and animism\u2014 a space for radical religious groups \u201cWestern education is a sin\u201d in the the idea that objects, places, and to offer an alternative solution to a local Hausa language. In 2014, the creatures all possess a spiritual disaffected populace. These groups group sparked international outrage essence. have stepped in where government (and the hashtag #Saveourgirls) has failed, raising money for schools when it kidnapped 276 female One example of Africanized and hospitals, while also spreading students from a government school. Islam is found in Senegal, where a radical version of Islam. In areas of the country affected by almost all Muslims are Sufis, Boko Haram, almost no one gets belonging to mystical orders linked One of the most notorious schooling, health care, or other to holy men or marabouts. The most groups is the Nigerian Islamist public services. famous of these is Cheikh Ahmadou Boko Haram. Founded in 2002, it Bamba (1853\u20131927), founder of the rejects the secular state, since it is On the opposite side of Africa, Mouride brotherhood. His followers created by man, not God, as well as Somalia\u2019s Islamist group al-Shabab attribute miraculous powers to him, (\u201cthe Youth\u201d) has repeatedly but he himself preached a simple Islam demands peace attacked the capital Mogadishu message of devotion to God and and not the kind of egotism since 2006. Its aim is to create an hard work: his motto was \u201cPray to Islamic state in Somalia, but it also God but plow your fields.\u201d Bamba\u2019s where you kill people operates in neighboring countries, image can be seen all over Senegal with Kalashnikovs. notably Kenya, where it has staged today, on wall murals and stickers on Cheikh Tidiane Samb at least 150 attacks: in 2013, taxi dashboards. In his hometown of al-Shabab attacked a shopping mall Touba, his tomb\u2014inside one of the Senegalese Mouride in Nairobi, killing 67; in 2015, the largest mosques in West Africa\u2014is group killed 148 in an attack on a a major site of pilgrimage. university in Garissa; and in 2019, it bombed a Nairobi hotel, killing at Extremist scourge least 21. However, groups such as While there are almost as many Boko Haram and al-Shabab, which Muslims in Africa as there are both have links with al-Qaeda, are Christians, broadly speaking, the at odds with an otherwise moderate north of the continent is heavily African Islam across the continent. \u25a0 Muslim and the south is mostly Christian. The two religious groups have coexisted largely peacefully, but in the 21st century the region in which the two meet\u2014a 4,000- mile (6,400-km) band across the middle of Africa, from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east\u2014 has turned into a zone of bloodshed, not because of Muslim\u2013Christian sectarian violence, but because of Islamist extremism and terrorism.","280 MTAOLULSGTLROIAMOSSPMFIAASNILLYAM ABDURRAHMAN WAHID (2005) IN CONTEXT I ndonesia has the world\u2019s largest two centuries, major Muslim Muslim population. While centers sprang up at Melaka (now THEME 99 percent of its 229 million Malacca, in Malaysia) and Aceh, Islam in Indonesia Muslims are Sunni, they mostly in Sumatra. practice a distinctively local form WHEN AND WHERE of Islam, called Islam Nusantara\u2014 With Mecca some 4,350 miles 2015, Indonesia Nusantara being a local term for the (7,000 km) away, this process of Indonesian archipelago, which is Islamization occurred without any BEFORE made up of more than 17,000 islands. intervention from the caliphates or 1405\u201333 Chinese Muslim dynasties, Arab or otherwise, who admiral Zheng He leads a Islam first arrived in Southeast were extending Islamic interests series of voyages across the Asia with Muslim traders in the across North Africa, Asia, and Indian Ocean, linking Muslim 13th century, and spread to islands Europe. Rather than being imposed communities in southern and archipelagos across the region. on Indonesia, Islam was gradually China with those throughout By the end of the century, a Muslim absorbed into local traditions, such Southeast Asia. sultan ruled Pasai on the north as pilgrimages to the tombs of local coast of Sumatra, one of the islands saints, festivals celebrating their 1613\u201346 Sultan Agung of that form Indonesia. Over the next birthdays, and ceremonies to send Mataram in Central Java leads the spirits of the deceased into the a \u201choly war\u201d against Bali, the Afterlife. The retention of such only Hindu state in the midst traditions gave this regional Islam of the predominantly Muslim a distinctively mystical accent. islands of the Indian (now Indonesian) Archipelago. Imported ideas The sense of isolation began to AFTER change in the 1870s, when the 2019 Indonesia\u2019s president Dutch\u2014whose Dutch East Indies Joko Widodo is reelected with colony included Indonesia\u2014began a commitment to religious to switch from sail to steamships pluralism, while hardline Muslims back his opponent. Islam Nusantara is challenged in many parts of the country by local laws that compel women and girls to wear the hijab in schools, government offices, and public spaces.","ISLAM TODAY 281 See also: God\u2019s guidance through Sharia 128\u201333 \u25a0 Spreading Islam through trade 182\u201385 \u25a0 Wahhabism, or an Islamic Reformation 216\u201317 \u25a0 The demographics of Islam today 260\u201361 Observance of Islam, maintaining pre-Islamic Islam Nusantara, a including following the local traditions, including liberal and inclusive Quran, the sunna, and pilgrimages to local saints\u2019 form of Islam that can be the Five Pillars of Islam ... adapted to any culture tombs and celebrating saints\u2019 birthdays \u2026 across the globe. for faster journey times. This liberal ideas and supporter of inter- world. It seeks to offer a counter- enabled many more Southeast faith dialogue when he served as narrative to what the NU sees as Asian Muslims to make their Indonesia\u2019s president in 1999\u20132001. the rigid ideology propagated by first pilgrimage to Mecca, and stricter elements of Islam in the Indonesians soon became the Islam Nusantara Middle East. Its aim is not to insert largest contingent of pilgrims from In 2015, the NU coined the term Indonesian culture into the Arab any nation on the annual Hajj. Islam Nusantara, or Indonesian world, but to promote an approach Islam, to refer to the type of that accommodates local culture While on the Hajj, these pilgrims localized Islam practiced by the within Islam. were exposed for the first time to majority of the country\u2019s Muslims. the religious and intellectual ideas This followed the example set by The NU sees this as a blueprint of Arabia\u2014and specifically to Abdurrahman Wahid, who once for developing, for example, a Wahhabism. They took these ideas said, \u201cAll too many Muslims fail uniquely American, European, or home, leading to calls for stricter to grasp Islam, which teaches one Australian Islam\u2014understandings forms of Islamic observance, to be lenient toward others and of Islam that take account of where including the introduction of Sharia. to understand their value systems, Muslims live. Opponents, including knowing that these are tolerated many within Indonesia itself, In 1926, moderate Indonesian by Islam as a religion.\u201d contend that Islam Nusantara seeks Muslims responded by coming to legitimize practices at odds with together to found the Nahdlatul The NU has since embarked the teachings of Islam; supporters Ulama (NU), or the \u201cRevival of the on a project to promote its vision of maintain that it is an inclusive Ulama.\u201d The organization presented an inclusive Islam to the rest of the Islam, tolerant of local culture. \u25a0 itself in opposition to Wahhabism, and argued for a more tolerant Sharia in Aceh Sharia police now monitor public interpretation of Islam. During the behavior and enforce the rules, Indonesian war of independence Not all of Indonesia follows a including prohibitions on alcohol in 1945\u201349, the NU supported the liberal interpretation of Islam. and gambling, the wearing of struggle against Dutch colonial As a result of concessions to suitably modest clothing by forces, calling it a holy war. help end an armed separatist women, and restrictions on the conflict that had run for almost mixing of sexes. Penalties for In the new republic, the NU 30 years, ending in 2005, the offenses take the form of public became a political party, first as part semiautonomous province of canings. Some politicians in of a coalition of Islamic groups, later Aceh on the northwest tip of Aceh have called the tsunami as an independent party. In 1984, Sumatra was granted special that hit the region in December the NU withdrew from politics and rights to set some of its own 2004 \u201ca punishment from God\u201d returned to its original purpose as regulations. One of these was and have warned that a bigger a socio-religious organization. That the implementation of Sharia as disaster will come if the people same year, Abdurrahman Wahid an adjunct to civil and criminal of Aceh do not follow Sharia. (popularly known as Gus Dor), law, which was presented as a grandson of NU founder Hasyim way to address social issues. Asyari, became chairman of the NU. He would remain a promoter of","282 IN CONTEXT YWATOOGHUOPYRTODHODOAVGTEIUHITY\u2019MAO?VE THEME Muslims in the West ABE AJRAMI (2018) WHEN AND WHERE Today, the West BEFORE 1889 The Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking, near London, becomes the first custom-built mosque in Great Britain. 1957 Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first US president to visit an American mosque when he speaks at the Islamic Center of Washington DC. 2016 The US\u2019s Pew Research Center estimates the number of Muslims in Sweden at 810,000, or 8.1 percent of the population. In western Europe, only France (at 8.8 percent) has a higher percentage of Muslims. I n 2018, German chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament, \u201cIt is beyond question that our country was historically formed by Christianity and Judaism. But it\u2019s also the case that with 4.5 million Muslims living with us, their religion, Islam, has also become a part of Germany.\u201d She could also have been speaking for the rest of Europe, which, leaving out Russia and Turkey, is home to an estimated 25.8 million Muslims. Muslims are found in significant numbers across western Europe, with large populations in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and smaller numbers in most other","ISLAM TODAY 283 See also: The caliphate of the Ottoman Empire 186\u201389 \u25a0 Islam in Europe 210\u201315 \u25a0 Early Muslims in America 224\u201327 \u25a0 The demographics of Islam today 260\u201361 A 2016 survey published by the Pew conflicts in the Middle East and Research Center lists the total number Africa. The traditional preference of Muslims in Europe as 25.8 million, for large families means that or 4.9 percent of the population. Muslims tend to have more Countries with more than a million children than non-Muslims. Muslims are labelled Statistics state that the average on this map. Muslim woman in Europe has 2.6 children, while the average non- Muslim woman has 1.6 children. United Netherlands Guests turned citizens Kingdom (1.2) In each European country, the makeup and relationship of the (4.4) Muslim minority to the host country is different. Following Germany World War II, Germany desperately (5) needed labor and initiated a program of gastarbeiters, or % share of total France guest laborers. These migrant population (5.7) workers, mostly from Turkey\u2019s rural Anatolian heartlands, were 10\u201312% Italy expected to leave when their work 8\u201310% (2.9) was done, but instead they brought 6\u20138% their families. Germany eventually 4\u20136% Spain granted them and their German- 2\u20134% (1.2) born children citizenship, starting Less than 2% in 1990. Today, it is estimated that there are upward of 4 million countries, including Austria, in northeast England in the 19th people of full or partial Turkish Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, century, and the communities of origin living in Germany, making and Switzerland. migrants in Troms\u00f8 in the Arctic them the largest immigrant group region of Norway who arrived in in the country. More recently, \u276f\u276f Historic presence the 21st century. Muslims have governed parts of People are of two types \u2026 Europe for centuries, since Tarek Europe has seen a significant either your brother in Islam, ibn Ziyad conquered southern Spain increase in its Muslim population or your brother in humanity. in 711, and the Ottomans extended since the reconstruction and their domains into the Balkans in decolonization that followed World Ali ibn Abi Talib the 14th century. Islam is tightly War II. The 1950s and 1960s saw woven throughout the continent\u2019s several European countries actively Son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad history and culture. Today, Muslims soliciting Muslim immigrants to fill in Europe range from Bosniaks labor shortfalls. Between the peak (Bosnian Muslims) who can trace years of mid-2010 and mid-2016, their heritage back to the conquests migration again became significant of S\u00fcleyman the Magnificent as 3.8 million Muslims arrived in (r. 1520\u201366), to descendants of Europe, some as students, some Yemeni lascars (sailors) who settled seeking employment opportunities, but many others as refugees fleeing","284 MUSLIMS IN THE WEST between 2014 and 2016, when Soccer player Mohammed Salah If he scores another few, about 1 million migrants arrived is one of a growing number of global then I\u2019ll be Muslim too. in Europe, most of them Muslim, sports icons who provide positive Liverpool FC supporters Germany took in half of them. Muslim role models in the West. Soccer chant in honor of the club\u2019s France has the largest Muslim are largely concentrated in the Egyptian striker Mohammed Salah population in Europe, with 5.7 industrial cities of the north and million Muslims, primarily from the Midlands, where in the 1950s Khan) to sports (one of Britain\u2019s its former colonies in North Africa. and 1960s migrants were invited to greatest ever athletes is Sir The country has pursued a policy of settle and work in factories. Many Mohammed \u201cMo\u201d Farah). British assimilation, where migrants have of those factories are long since law protects diversity in faith and been viewed as permanent citizens closed, but second and third practice, which means Britain\u2019s and strategies have been employed generations of Muslims have Muslim communities tend to retain to encourage integration into the integrated into British life, with a strong sense of identity. state. Muslims have achieved Muslims represented in every success in all walks of life, from sector of society from politics (a The different approaches of captaining the French football Muslim mayor of London, Sadiq Germany, France, and Britain each team to World Cup glory (Zinedine bring their own problems. There Zidane) to being appointed minister has been a rise in support for right- of justice (Rachida Dati). However, wing politicians in Germany who despite the presence of grand oppose immigration. In France, mosques in major cities such as Muslim youths complain that their Paris and Lyons, integration policies religion causes many French to see also mean that the display of Islamic them as second-class citizens. In religious symbols, including the Britain, Muslim communities are veil, is banned in most institutions accused by some politicians and (the policy applies equally to the commentators of not doing enough symbols of other religions). to integrate. Integration or not In North America Britain\u2019s 2 million Muslims come Except in a few cities, such as primarily from India, Pakistan, and Dearborn, Michigan (which is at the Bangladesh, which once formed heart of an industrial area that drew part of the British Empire. They many Muslim migrants in the early years of the 20th century), Muslims Islam Down Under in the United States are thinly spread. In 2017, they totaled about Numbers released by the Mohammedans\u2014were listed in 3.45 million, or just over 1 percent Australian Bureau of Statistics the musters (colony headcounts) of the nation\u2019s total population. in 2017 revealed that Arabic was of 1802, 1811, and 1822, and in the third most spoken language the first census of 1828. The The Muslim experience in North in Australia behind English and Muslim population was boosted America tends to be quite different Mandarin. The same census in the second half of the 19th from that of Muslims in Europe. put the number of Australians century by the arrival of Central who identified as Muslims as Asians, who came as camel 604,200, or 2.6 percent of the drivers to lead the camel trains total population. that transported goods across the country\u2019s deserts and also Islam in Australia goes back built the country\u2019s first mosque to at least the 18th century, in 1861. The Adelaide to Darwin when Indonesian Muslims from railway is named \u201cthe Ghan\u201d Sulawesi visited the coast of (short for Afghan) after them. northern Australia. Muslims\u2014or","ISLAM TODAY 285 American Muslims gathered on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 25, 2009 for Friday prayer, to \u201cpray for understanding between America and its Muslim community.\u201d Muslim migrants to Europe have censuses, experts predict that in reported that the congregation traditionally come from poorer 2019, Canada probably had about includes Homeland Security agents, segments of society. The relatively 3 million Muslims. State Department bureaucrats, and close distance between Europe and Closing the gap lawyers from the Department of North Africa and the Middle East Despite recent difficulties, Muslims Justice. The New York Police means they retain close contact in the US are thriving. Each Friday, Department set up a Muslim with their countries of birth and, for instance, Washington\u2019s Church Officers Society, the first in America, when they succeed in Europe, of the Epiphany near the White which has resulted in a significant they often seek to bring over their House turns into a mosque. It is increase in police recruitment families. America\u2019s Muslims are among Muslims. There is a Muslim generally more middle class. With A Muslim nurse assists a patient Barbie \u2013 modeled on Olympic fewer of them in relation to the total in a UK hospital. According to a 2015 medal-winning fencer Ibtihaj population, they are more integrated. report, of the UK\u2019s 4.4 million Muslims, Muhammad. In 2017, the television 47 percent were UK born, and 33 channel Hulu invested in Ramy, a After 9\/11, however, America\u2019s percent were ages 15 and under. show about an American Muslim relationship with its Muslim navigating his way through life in community changed. This group\u2014 New Jersey. It premiered in 2019 until then a largely \u201cinvisible\u201d and became a hit, finding an minority\u2014became perceived as appreciative audience far beyond \u201cthe enemy within,\u201d accused of the Muslim community. harboring disloyalty to their nation. Then-president George W. Bush In many ways, the 20th-century voiced what many Americans were wave of Muslim arrivals in the West thinking when he asked in the days has done remarkably well. Many after the attack, \u201cWhy do they hate came from humble backgrounds to us?\u201d In a 2017 survey, 42 percent carve out new lives in their adopted of Muslim children ages 11 to 18 countries. In the 21st century, in America said they were bullied two or three generations later, at school because of their faith. their children and grandchildren Another survey revealed that one have closed the gaps in education, in five Americans would deny salary, and lifestyles, with the only Muslim citizens the right to differentiator being religion. \u25a0 vote. Abe Ajrami, a Palestinian American medical professional in Texas, spoke for many Muslim Americans when in 2018 he told a reporter from National Geographic magazine, \u201cWhy do I have to prove to you that I\u2019m a good guy?\u201d Canada has a significantly higher percentage of Muslims than the US. The 2011 census recorded 1,053,945 people who identified as Muslims in Canada, or about 3.2 percent of the population. Based on patterns in previous","286 ID\u2019MONI\u2019STLPAAMNIICC, LYNN GASPARD (2017) IN CONTEXT T he word Islamophobia of Salman Rushdie, author of a entered the Oxford English novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), THEME Dictionary in 2006, where that many Muslims considered The rising tide of it is defined as: \u201cIntense dislike or offensive toward Islam. The anger Islamophobia fear of Islam, especially as a political felt by Muslims the world over was force; hostility or prejudice toward matched by that of non-Muslims in WHEN AND WHERE Muslims.\u201d the West in response to the fatwa. Today, worldwide As the OED notes, the word has In the 20 years between the first BEFORE been around since at least 1923, Runnymede report and its follow-up 1993 In the first terror attack when it was used in an article in in 2017, anti-Muslim prejudice grew on US soil, extremists bomb The Journal of Theological Studies. into a significant geopolitical force. the World Trade Center in New Britain\u2019s Runnymede Trust, a think Perceptions of Muslims have been York City, killing six people. tank on race relations, brought the harmed by events such as the 9\/11 word to public attention in 1997, attacks in the United States, the 1995 The Federal Building with a widely discussed report 7\/7 London bombings in the UK in in Oklahoma City is bombed, entitled Islamophobia: A Challenge 2005, the Charlie Hebdo and killing 168 people. Media for Us All. reports blame \u201cIslamic extremists.\u201d In fact, the Triggers Islamophobia has now crossed bomber is Timothy McVeigh, The 1997 report came as a result of the threshold. \u2026 For far too a white, Christian man. growing anti-Muslim prejudice, not many people, Islamophobia just in Britain but around the world. is seen as a legitimate\u2014even 2001 Reel Bad Arabs, a book Among myriad contributory factors, commendable\u2014thing. by Jack Shaheen, looks at how experts point to two main triggers. Baroness Warsi Hollywood vilifies Arabs and The first was the Iranian Revolution Muslims on screen. of 1979, reports of which were First Muslim member of Cabinet dominated by images of Iranians in a UK government, 2010\u201314 2019 A white supremacist burning American and British flags gunman kills 51 people and in the Western press, without injures 49 in shooting attacks necessarily explaining the roots of at mosques in Christchurch, the uprising. The second came in New Zealand. 1989, when Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued his fatwa (ruling) calling for the death","ISLAM TODAY 287 See also: God\u2019s guidance through Sharia 128\u201333 \u25a0 The Iranian Revolution 248\u201351 \u25a0 The new extremists 272\u201377 \u25a0 Muslims in the West 282\u201385 \u25a0 A feminist Islam? 292\u201399 Muslim activist Mona Haydar offers the building of mosques and reported surge in Islamophobic free coffee and doughnuts in Cambridge, minarets, and halal meat, along incidents. According to Tell MAMA, Massachusetts, in 2016, along with an with calls for \u201cburka bans.\u201d an organization that records hate invitation to \u201cAsk A Muslim,\u201d as a way crime in the UK, the week following of countering Islamophobia. Islamophobic comments made the comment saw an almost four- by a number of politicians in the fold increase (375 percent) in anti- November 2015 Paris attacks in West have resulted in spikes in anti- Muslim incidents compared to the France, and the surge of so-called Muslim hate crime. More often than week before. \u201cjihadis\u201d\u2014some 40,000, according not, Muslim women have borne the to the UN in 2017\u2014heading to Iraq brunt of this. In Britain, a prominent In the United States, the New and Syria to join (or marry) ISIS politician\u2019s comments made in 2018 America organization notes that fighters. As a result, much of public equating niqab-wearing women to anti-Muslim activities have discourse on Muslims and Islam has \u201cbank robbers\u201d was followed by a increased markedly in recent times. been framed in terms of terrorism. It documents 763 separate incidents Discrimination in Asia between 2012 and the end of 2018. Reponses While the terrorist threat is very About a quarter of Muslims in Us and them real, many misleading or outright Asia live as minorities within Anti-Muslim hate crime attempts incorrect stories in the media their countries. Despite Asian to promote the separation between have served to stigmatize Muslim economic growth, these Muslim \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem,\u201d creating mutual communities that are every bit minorities have experienced a suspicion, hostility, and fear. It fails as horrified by terrorist actions persistent decline in their to recognize that the Muslim as their non-Muslim neighbors. status, often accompanied by community consists of many diverse Each attack fuels the proliferation violence. In India, there has and fluid national, racial, and ethnic of hostile far-right groups with been a marginalization of communities, whose adherence to an anti-Islam agenda. In the 21st Muslims since the election of Islam ranges from devout to not at century, these have extended the Hindu nationalist BJP party all. The book Don\u2019t Panic, I\u2019m Islamic across the US and many European in 2014. Many nationalists (edited by Lynn Gaspard) is a witty countries and have included express the idea that Muslims reply to an American travel ban in campaigns against immigration, can never truly be Indians 2017 that largely targeted Muslims, because, unlike Hindus, their and celebrates their diversity. \u25a0 holy sites are not in India. In Sri Lanka, there were anti-Muslim riots in 2018 and 2019. In 2016, state authorities in Myanmar began a crackdown on the country\u2019s Muslim Rohingya population. Employing killing, rape, and arson, the Burmese military has forced more than one million Rohingya to flee to neighboring countries. In China more than one million Muslim Uighurs are reported to have been detained and placed in so-called \u201creeducation camps.\u201d","288 IIMSSYLMAIDYMEFN&ATMUITMILYMYZA ROSE @CHOCOLATE9933 (TWITTER) IN CONTEXT M uslims have embraced wakes up in the morning and does the internet, smartphones, not think of their Muslim brothers THEME and related technologies and sisters is not a Muslim. Islam in the digital age just as the rest of the world has\u2014 Formerly, umma would only be and, in some ways, the results have experienced on occasions of mass WHEN AND WHERE been even more significant. The gathering, such as Friday prayers or Today, worldwide best example of this is the way in the Hajj, but thanks to the internet, which social media was directly Muslims around the world share a BEFORE responsible for the spread of the strong sense of belonging to a 2011 Young activists working uprisings throughout the Middle global, digital umma. through social media are East in 2010 and 2011, known as instrumental in organizing the Arab Spring. In Egypt, it was Online resources allow Muslims the Arab Spring protests that a Facebook campaign in support to easily explore scripture and gain sweep North Africa and the of Khaled Saeed, a young man a deeper understanding of their Middle East. murdered by the police, that led to faith. Forums allow discussion of an initial protest march, which then religious issues of a sometimes 2012 Some friends in New rapidly escalated to mass protests difficult or personal nature, such as York jokingly tag themselves in Tahrir Square and the downfall \u201cMuslim hipsters\u201d and the of then-president Hosni Mubarak. \u201cMipsterz\u201d quickly evolve into a global online community. Digital umma Muslim youngsters are adopting technology to 2015 Apple introduces Kaaba, The Arab Spring was not religious distance themselves from mosque, and prayer beads in nature\u2014the protestors were older, traditional practices emojis for Muslim users. against oppressive regimes\u2014even while also challenging if, in the case of Egypt and Tunisia, 2019 A Malaysian start-up subsequent free elections saw Western models. launches SalamWeb, a new Islamic parties voted into power. Bart Barendregt browser that is compliant with However, the internet has provided Islamic values, vetting web new ways for Muslims to explore Associate professor, Leiden University pages as appropriate, neutral, their own Islamic identity. The or inappropriate. notion of umma, or the global Muslim nation, is embedded in Islam. Prophet Muhammad reportedly said that anyone who","ISLAM TODAY 289 See also: The umma, the community of Islam 32\u201333 \u25a0 The demographics of Islam today 260\u201361 \u25a0 The Arabization of global Islam 262\u201363 \u25a0 Muslims in the West 282\u201385 \u25a0 The global business of halal 290 \u25a0 A feminist Islam? 292\u201399 Is it haram for girls to post video to YouTube showing herself and deliver Quranic verses to their pics on the internet driving. The video went viral read each day. There are apps to and earned al-Sharif a spell in locate the nearest mosque or halal without hijab? detention, but in 2018 Saudi Arabia restaurant, and numerous Muslim Question posted on began issuing its first driving networking and dating apps, Stack Exchange\/Islam licenses to women. with names like buzzArab and Muzmatch. In a uniquely Islamic forum In 2018, women used the hashtag slant on a global obsession, when #MosqueMeToo to share stories of millions of Muslims gather in sexual health, relationships, and sexual assault and abuse in places Mecca each year to perform the spiritual well being, without having of worship. Hajj, Twitter is deluged with self- to rely on local preachers. portraits tagged #HajjSelfie. Sheikh Google #MosqueMeToo The internet is also a prime source Technology cuts both ways. The internet\u2019s impact is even for religious rulings, or fatwas. Militant Islamist groups continue greater for Muslim women, for However, this reliance on what to use online forums to attract whom traditional learning spaces is playfully referred to as \u201cSheikh recruits to their causes and to such as mosques and madrasas Google\u201d is open to abuses\u2014for post propaganda videos featuring have traditionally been off limits. instance, \u201cfatwa shopping,\u201d which horrific killings. Social media This is the subject of American is the term for taking a question to has also increased the reach of Muslim Hind Makki\u2019s Tumblr, called multiple online religious scholars controversial clerics, such as Saudi Side Entrance, which contrasts until the questioner gets the Arabian Muhammad Al Arefe, who photographs of attractive prayer answer they want. has advocated violence against spaces reserved for men with the non-Muslims. However, the dismal spaces\u2014often basements\u2014 Software developers have used internet\u2019s potential to encourage set aside for women. The internet, technology to aid good Islamic open discussion and spread at least, offers an alternative forum practice in many other ways. Phone understanding and knowledge of in the form of \u201cvirtual mosques\u201d that apps give prayer time notifications, Islam is overwhelmingly positive. \u25a0 offer online sermons and instruction, indicate the direction of Mecca, or dawah (Islamic information- sharing) programs on YouTube. In 2011, in protest against Saudi Arabia\u2019s ban on women behind the wheel, Manal al-Sharif uploaded a United Arab Emirates nationals Khalid Al Ameri and his wife Salama Mohamed are prominent Muslim social media influencers; they have 3.2 million followers on Facebook.","290 CWWOHHNOASTUTMHMEUEYSALAFIRMFEESCTS SHELINA JANMOHAMED, AUTHOR OF GENERATION M: YOUNG MUSLIMS CHANGING THE WORLD (2016) IN CONTEXT T raditionally the term example, there is alcohol-free \u201chalal halal (permitted) has beer\u201d and \u201chalal wine,\u201d and even THEME been applied to indicate halal \u201cbacon\u201d (made from beef). The global business a food that has been prepared in The halal travel industry caters to of halal accordance with Sharia law, and the desire for hotels serving halal is acceptable for Muslims to eat. food, gender-segregated pools, and WHEN AND WHERE However, increasingly the term is no alcohol. Halal dating agencies Today, worldwide applied to products other than food, match Muslims who want to get as the definition of halal widens married; clients start by exchanging BEFORE to encompass anything that is \u201chalal\u201d (virtuous) chat-up lines. 2004 Malaysia launches the tayyab (\u201cwholesome\u201d). For many, Halal is big business: according to Malaysian International Halal consuming halal products and a 2019 forecast, the global halal Showcase, with companies engaging in halal activities is a market is expected to be worth from 19 different countries. daily part of being a good Muslim. $9.71 trillion by 2025. \u25a0 \u201cGoing halal\u201d also becomes a badge 2008 CrescentRating launches of identity for Muslims wanting to Halal tourism is a rapidly growing as the world\u2019s first online site publicly assert their faith. sector in the travel industry. Popular to rate hotels according to their destinations include Muslim countries halal facilities. With some products, such as such as Turkey and the Maldives, toothpaste, skin creams, and pictured above. 2018 Three former students cosmetics, Muslims want to know from Nottingham University that no alcohol or haram (forbidden) (a Palestinian, Jordanian, and animal products have been used in Russian) launch Halalivery, an their making. Manufacturers offer on-demand halal food delivery halal nail polishes that claim, service in the UK. unlike normal types, to let water through, so they do not need to be 2019 Brazil, the world\u2019s top removed before ablutions for prayer. exporter of halal beef and Other products that might normally meats, announces that its be haram have also been changed halal food exports are worth to become halal compliant\u2014for $5 billion annually. See also: Muslim dietary laws 124\u201325 \u25a0 Islam and alcohol, gambling, and drugs 126 \u25a0 God\u2019s guidance through Sharia 128\u201333","ISLAM TODAY 291 FECOTAHRNICGBAOELOADFFINORANCCEE CORDOBA CAPITAL, ISLAMIC FINANCE CONSULTING IN CONTEXT T he Quran forbids usury repayment of the purchase price (riba), or the earning of and rent until he or she owns the THEME interest, a key component property, an arrangement known as Islamic banking of modern international banking. ijara. Islamic banks loan money to Sharia-compliant Islamic banking businesses in exchange for a share WHEN AND WHERE does not pay or charge interest. In in profits. If the business defaults or Today, worldwide an Islamic mortgage, for instance, does not earn a profit, the bank also a bank does not lend money to a does not benefit. BEFORE person to buy a property; instead, 1940s\u201350s Islamic scholars the bank buys the property. The Islamic banks also promise condemn commercial banks customer either buys it back from customers that they will not invest and propose a banking system the bank at a higher price, paid in in things that Islam forbids\u2014so no based on mudaraba, where instalments (murabaha), or makes alcohol, armaments, drugs, pork, shared profit on investment payments that are both a gambling, tobacco, or pornography. would replace interest. You have to understand Both Muslims and non-Muslims 1976 Following the First the basics of Sharia, what\u2019s can benefit from Islamic banking, International Conference on which many customers value as a Islamic Economics in Mecca, allowed and not allowed more transparent and fairer system the first interest-free bank is in Islam. of finance. In the UK, Al Rayan established in Dubai in 1979. Bank estimates that more than Sheikh Hussein Hassan one third of its customers are non- 2004 The Islamic Bank of Muslim. Many conventional banks Britain becomes the UK\u2019s first Scholar on applying Sharia to finance also offer Islamic banking services. Islamic bank. In 2014, it was The fact that investments can only rebranded as Al Rayan Bank. be made in activities in keeping with the ethical values of Islam 2016 CNBC reports on the appeals not just to Muslims but to \u201cquiet financial revolution anyone who shares the ideals of fair going on under the radar,\u201d trading, and prefers banks that which is the rise of Islamic invest in real assets rather than financial institutions in the US. speculating in financial markets. \u25a0 See also: Islam and alcohol, gambling, and drugs 126 \u25a0 Money-lending in Islam 127 \u25a0 God\u2019s guidance through Sharia 128\u201333","WOMENIERSEMLLPIGAOIMOWNIETSHRASAT MARIAM KHAN (2019)","","294 A FEMINIST ISLAM? F eminism and Islam are Often, women are immediately often seen as incompatible, identifiable as Muslims in a way men IN CONTEXT particularly by those are not, by what they wear, notably the outside the Muslim world. Western hijab, or headscarf. THEME commentators and media typically A feminist Islam? present Islam as responsible for example, in 2013 the Pew Research marginalizing women\u2019s role in Center published the results of a WHEN AND WHERE society and acting as an obstacle survey conducted in Muslim- Today, worldwide to their careers. For many Muslim majority countries that asked women, however, feminism and whether a wife should always obey BEFORE faith can and do happily coexist. her husband\u2014the majority of c. 595 Wealthy Meccan trader respondents answered she should. Khadija bint Khuwaylid The very beginnings of Islam In Turkey, 65 percent were in favor marries Muhammad, future provide a feminist role model in of a husband\u2019s right to obedience, prophet of Islam. the form of Khadija bint Khuwaylid, while in Malaysia the figure was the first wife of Prophet Muhammad. 96 percent. On the question of how 1236 Razia Sultana becomes A successful businesswoman in women should dress in public, empress of the Delhi Sultanate Mecca, she chose Muhammad as and the first sovereign female her husband\u2014not the other way ruler in Islamic history. around\u2014and provided him with the opportunity to become a successful 1250 Shagaret al-Dur (\u201cTree merchant in his own right. After of Pearls\u201d) becomes sultana of Muhammad began receiving the Egypt on her husband\u2019s death. revelations that would form the Quran, Khadija became the first 1918 Azerbaijan is the first Muslim. She challenges the Muslim-majority country to give erroneous assumption that Muslim women the vote\u2014the same women\u2019s so-called subjugation year as Austria, Germany, stems from the Quran. Poland, and Russia, and a year before the 19th Amendment Challenging assumptions would state that the right to It is not hard to see why feminism vote of all citizens could not and Islam are so often viewed as be denied by any US state on being at odds with each other. For the basis of sex. In 1919, Egyptian Huda Shaarawi removed her face veil in public Huda Shaarawi led women onto the streets to at Cairo railway station. Those demonstrate against the British who had come to greet her occupation of her country. She were shocked. However, many was equally critical of the rules women soon followed her lead. of the patriarchal world in which she was raised, which saw her Shaarawi and her followers married off at the age of 13 to a made further important gains, cousin 40 years her senior. including establishing 16 as the minimum age for marriage for Shaarawi\u2019s activism began women, and founding the first in 1908, when she helped create secondary school for young the first medical dispensary for women and the Egyptian underprivileged women and Feminist Union. After Shaarawi\u2019s children. The act that she is death in 1947, President Nasser most remembered for came in banned Egypt\u2019s women\u2019s 1922 when, returning from a movements\u2014they would not conference in Rome, she reemerge until the 1980s.","ISLAM TODAY 295 See also: Women in the Quran 82\u201385 \u25a0 The new extremists 272\u201377 \u25a0 Islam in Africa 278\u201379 \u25a0 Muslims in the West 282\u201385 \u25a0 The hijab and niqab 300\u201303 another survey (this one carried out at about 13 years. By contrast, I\u2019m a feminist and by the University of Michigan\u2019s women in economically poor a Muslim. Institute for Social Research in Muslim-majority countries, such 2014) conducted in seven Muslim- as Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, Sierra Malala Yousafzai majority countries found that most Leone, and Yemen receive on respondents, both male and female, average less than two years of Pakistani activist for preferred that a woman should education (three years in the case female education completely cover her hair. of Nigeria). Patriarchal and conservative What the Pew Research Center views may remain commonplace, survey does not reflect is that even but that is far from the whole story. in those countries in which women Many middle-class Muslim women benefit from education, far too few lead lives that ar not much different join the workforce. In Saudi Arabia, from their non-Muslim counterparts. where there are more women in \u276f\u276f They are often well educated, have jobs, run businesses, and enjoy busy social lives. Education and opportunity Muslim societies have frequently faced criticism from outside for failing to adequately educate women. The Taliban\u2019s attack on Pakistani women\u2019s education activist Malala Yousafzai and the Nigeria-based Boko Haram group\u2019s kidnapping of schoolgirls have contributed to this perception. However, data published by the Pew Research Center in 2018 suggests that it is not Islam that limits the education of Muslim women, but economics. The Center\u2019s analysis shows that a country\u2019s wealth is the most important factor in women\u2019s education. Women in the oil-rich states of Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar, for example, receive as many years of schooling as women in Germany and the United Kingdom (about 12 years)\u2014which is only slightly less than the United States Women in the Islamic world are increasingly becoming better educated. For example, in Saudi Arabia, fewer than 2 percent of women went to college in 1970; today, the figure is 57 percent.","296 A FEMINIST ISLAM? Egyptian women gathered on young, the technology industry their part in shaping their nation\u2019s Tahrir Square in Cairo during the is not afflicted by the inherited revolutions. It was a reminder that demonstrations of spring 2011. This prejudices of older and traditionally without rights for women, no was a gender-equal revolution that male-dominated fields. country can become a true saw both sexes on the front lines. democracy. Since then, eight Women leading countries in the Middle East college than men (52 percent The Arab Spring uprisings that and North Africa region have women versus 48 percent men), began in 2010 shattered stereotypes criminalized domestic violence. Six only 27 percent of women go on as women, young and old, from governments have repealed laws to get a job. In one university in Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain stood that allowed a rapist to escape Cairo, while 80 percent of students on the frontlines to protest and play prosecution by marrying his victim. studying architecture are women, anecdotal evidence suggests that A whole series of people Progress on women\u2019s rights is women make up less than half of opposed me simply on the most pronounced in Tunisia, where all practising architects. Despite grounds that I was a woman. the Arab Spring pro-democracy any equality in education, the idea uprisings started. The country\u2019s that offices are a male environment Benazir Bhutto 2014 constitution affirms equal and that women belong at home rights for male and female citizens still prevails in many parts of the Former Pakistani prime minister, and promises the state will strive Islamic world. assassinated in 2007 to achieve parity in all elected assemblies. Following elections in However, this may be changing. 2018, it was reported that women A report by the World Economic make up 47 percent of the local Forum in 2018 revealed that one in council positions. Tunisia is also three start-ups in the Arab world is notable for overturning legislation founded or led by women, which is banning Muslim women from a higher percentage than in Silicon marrying non-Muslim men\u2014a Valley in California. Being relatively taboo in most Muslim countries,","ISLAM TODAY 297 My life\u2019s work has been Muslim countries, including high- I believe women and informed by the belief that profile portfolios such as health, minorities often wait for religion and culture must investment, and tourism. The same permission to be invited never be used to justify the year, the cabinet of the United Arab to something; we need to Emirates could boast nine women subjugation of women. ministers out of 32, which is close stop doing that. Mona Eltahawy to 30 percent. Ilhan Omar Author and journalist Beyond the Arab world, Muslim- US Congresswoman majority Pakistan elected a woman although men can marry non- as head of state in Benazir Bhutto, parents in Detroit) serves as the Muslim women because it is who served as prime minister from representative for Michigan\u2019s 13th assumed that children will take 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to congressional district, while the father\u2019s religion. 1996. In Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia Somali-born Ilhan Omar represents served as the prime minister from Minnesota\u2019s 5th congressional Across the Middle East and 1991 to 1996, and again from 2001 district. Both took office in 2019. North Africa, female representation to 2006\u2014the first woman in the Omar, who wears a headscarf, has in national parliaments rose to an country\u2019s history and second in a been the subject of inflammatory, average of about 17.5 percent in Muslim-majority country to head anti-Muslim rhetoric at rallies, 2017, up from less than 5 percent a democratic government. Another including one in South Carolina in 20 years previously \u2013 the global woman, Sheikh Hasina, served as 2019 where the crowd repeatedly average is 23.4 percent. In fact, Bangladesh\u2019s prime minister from chanted \u201csend her back.\u201d in 2019 women held 25 percent of 1996 to 2001, and took up the post all top ministerial posts in Egypt, again in 2009. We are not oppressed one of the world\u2019s most populous Women such as Ilhan Omar and In contrast, the first 45 Rashida Tlaib are frequently held presidents of the United States up as rare examples of Muslim have all been men. Women made women breaking through barriers. up 23.2 percent of the US Congress The Western media often portrays in 2019, but the first two Muslim such women as exceptions to the women ever to serve in Congress rule that Muslim women are have faced hostility. Rashida Tlaib oppressed by either their husbands (born to working-class Palestinian or their religion\u2014or both\u2014and are lacking in aspiration or the capability for independent thought. In 2016, a British newspaper reported that former British prime minister David Cameron had \u276f\u276f Somali-born Ilhan Omar (shown here), along with her colleague Rashida Tlaib, became the first two Muslim women to assume office in the US House of Representatives, in 2019.","298 A FEMINIST ISLAM? implied during a private meeting I am both \u2026 believer and women, considers itself a \u201cfeminist\u201d that the traditionally submissive feminist, enlightened and mosque. Its entire team\u2014including nature of British Muslim women sometimes very traditional, imams\u2014are also women. made their sons vulnerable to radicalization. In response, East and West. A number of Muslim women thousands of women took to Seyran Ates have sought to not only reform Twitter using the hashtag male-dominated mosques across #TraditionallySubmissive to list Muslim feminist Western Europe, but to reflect the their achievements. needs of the new generation of Equality at the mosque Muslims across the continent. A similar incident occurred Women are also carving out new Berlin is home to the Ibn Rushd\u2013 following a Democratic Party roles within the practice of Islam\u2014 Goethe mosque, the first liberal convention in the US in 2016 when although, so far, this is only mosque of its kind in Germany, Ghazala Khan, mother of a Muslim happening outside the Muslim- cofounded in 2017 by Turkish-born American soldier killed in Iraq, majority world. In Western Europe, lawyer, imam, and human rights remained silent while her husband a number of Muslim women have campaigner Seyran Ates. In a move spoke. Republican presidential sought to reform male-dominated that elicited controversy, women candidate Donald Trump said at religious worship and education and men pray together, while the time, \u201cIf you look at his wife, and reflect the needs of a new women can lead the prayer and she was standing there. She had generation of believers. In the UK, preach. Ates has since received nothing to say \u2026 maybe she wasn\u2019t the Inclusive Mosque Initiative, death threats and hate mail from allowed to have anything to say. which was established in London conservative Muslims, and the You tell me.\u201d in 2012 by two British Muslim main religious authority in Turkey has attacked the mosque for While this view of Muslim \u201cdepraving and ruining religion.\u201d women as passive, voiceless victims is prevalent in the West, Scandinavia\u2019s first female-led women in the Muslim world are mosque opened in Copenhagen, moving on with being doctors, Denmark, in 2016. Named the journalists, university professors, Mariam Mosque (after the mother soldiers, technology entrepreneurs, of Jesus), it was founded by two airline pilots, sporting stars, and female imams, Sherin Khankan and government ministers. Saliha Marie Fetteh. As Khankan, a mother herself, has said, \u201dhaving female imams affects not only the structure in the mosque at a society level, but challenges the family structure\u201d\u2014children grow up in the faith seeing women as leaders. Friday prayers are exclusively attended by women. Author and academic Dr. Amina Wadud is perhaps the most high- profile female imam in the US. Although America has yet to see its first mainstream female-run mosque, Dr. Wadud has led mixed Sherin Khankan, of the Mariam Mosque in Copenhagen, has called for the reformation of Islam with a feminist agenda, a vision outlined in her book Women Are the Future of Islam.","ISLAM TODAY 299 Ibtihaj Muhammad was the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the US at the Olympics. She earned a bronze team medal in fencing at Rio 2016. Friday prayers. Meanwhile, other the United States, Amani every single walk of life on the women are establishing spaces al-Khatahtbeh, who founded planet,\u201d she told allure.com. \u201cYou that reflect previously taboo MuslimGirl.com in 2009, launched can\u2019t talk about them in any way aspects of American Muslims\u2019 the first Muslim Women\u2019s Day. Like that\u2019s different than Christian identities. For example, Chicago- her website, it aimed to celebrate women, for example.\u201d based Mahdia Lynn runs Masjid the voices of Muslim women al-Rabia, a women-centered LGBTQ around the world, and counter In 2016, during a panel and trans-inclusive mosque. misrepresentation in the media. discussion at the White House\u2019s Al-Khatahtbeh is notably critical first United State of Women Reclaiming the narrative of the way that Muslim women are Summit, al-Khatahtbeh was asked, Muslim women are often the most treated as if they are one single \u201cHow do we empower the people visible representatives of their entity. \u201cMuslim women come from we call the voiceless?\u201d Her simple religion, because of the simple fact answer was, \u201cPass the mic.\u201d \u25a0 that many of them wear the hijab. In this way, they often become the subject of any discussion about Islam, even as their own voices are rarely heard. In 2019, feminist and writer Mariam Khan published It\u2019s Not About the Burqa, a collection of essays by Muslim women talking about their faith and their lives. \u201cWhen was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter?\u201d she asked in her introduction. Two years earlier in Scholars against the patriarchy The most dangerous There is a modern tradition of American professor of Islamic misconception about \u201cIslamic feminists\u201d working on studies Dr. Amina Wadud interpreting the main texts of courted controversy in her Inside Muslim women Islam from a distinctly feminist is that we\u2019re one perspective. The pioneer in the the Gender Jihad: Women\u2019s homogenous group. field was Moroccan sociologist Reform in Islam (2006). Citing Amani al-Khatahtbeh Fatema Mernissi (1940\u20132015). the example of slavery, which She produced one of the first she believes is condoned in Editor-in-chief of MuslimGirl.com books in the field, called Beyond the Quran, she argues that if the Veil, published in 1975. something seems to be against This and her many subsequent the standards of modern society, works reexamine traditional it has to be discarded. So when Islamic jurisprudence, to offer the Quran says that if a wife is alternative interpretations that disobedient her husband can are less male-oriented. hit her, this, too, is no longer acceptable in the modern world.","300 IN CONTEXT GBTHOEADAUNRTPAIFETUOHLPELRTEO THEME The hijab and niqab YASMIN MOGAHED (2019) WHEN AND WHERE Today, worldwide BEFORE c. 2500 bce Statues from ancient Mesopotamia show that veiling far predates the major religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. c. 627 ce The so-called \u201cverse of hijab\u201d (33:53) advises those who visit the Prophet\u2019s house to speak to his wives only from behind a hijab (curtain). 16th century Veils become popular during Ottoman rule as a mark of high rank and exclusivity; lower-class women are not veiled as it interferes with their work. 1923 Atat\u00fcrk bans the veil in government institutions in the new Republic of Turkey. T he Quran prescribes a code of behavior and dress for both men and women. In sura 24, the prescription is to men first: \u201cEnjoin believing men to turn their eyes away from temptation and to preserve their chastity. This will make their lives purer\u201d (24:30). It is then followed by a prescription for women: \u201cEnjoin believing women to turn their eyes away from temptation and to preserve their chastity; not to display their adornments (except such as are normally revealed); to draw their veils over their bosoms \u2026\u201d (24:31). The instruction is for men and women to be respectful in how they look at each other\u2014often described"]